Sir

The new system for specialist medical training currently being implemented by the UK government will have dire consequences for the country's biomedical research. The modernizing medical careers (MMC) framework for training doctors comprehensively fails to recognize the importance of academic research in either the recruitment or the training of future medical consultants. Many young, ambitious UK clinicians engaged in full-time pre- and postdoctoral research recently discovered, to their horror, that their academic and research achievements were essentially dismissed as irrelevant in the new selection process for specialist training.

In many specialities, research has traditionally been an integral, if informal, constituent of becoming a senior hospital consultant. Under the new system, unless doctors decide at the very beginning of their careers to embark on a separate, dedicated academic pathway of medical training, they will have almost no exposure or opportunity to engage in research.

This is a serious mistake. Proleptically dismissing a research-experienced medical workforce will be of substantial detriment to clinical-science research, medical innovation and the development of scientific and economic partnerships with industry. It neglects the fact that many consultants who are employed fulltime in a purely clinical capacity frequently actively engage in research, often in collaboration with basic scientists and biomedical research companies. This provides mutual benefit to both clinical science and the provision of basic medical care. Furthermore, it overlooks the fact that many leading medical academics do not develop or discover their passion for research until more advanced stages of their training. If tomorrow's clinicians have no expertise in research, the invaluable and profitable alliance between clinical and academic medicine in the United Kingdom is in jeopardy.

This problem has suddenly become rather urgent, as the new system was introduced with such speed and opaqueness that few saw it coming. The rushed and chaotic implementation should be immediately suspended in favour of an open, balanced and broad debate on the future of medical training and research.