Survey on the research activities within the EHRA Young EP community
Kevin Vernooy, Valentina Kutyifa, Giulio Conte, Stefan Nicolae Bogdan, Paweł Balsam, Jens Cosedis Nielsen, Jędrzej Kosiuk · EP Europace · 2018
The European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) Young Electrophysiology (EP) committee was formed in 2013. The Young EP Committee has been formed to facilitate, enhance, and accelerate the development of early career electrophysiologists.1 The goals of the Young EP committee are to provide an efficient networking venue, as well as to provide educational programmes and research opportunities for Young EP professionals, thus creating a global network and career advancement for the Young EP community. At its core, the Young EP committee aims to help a new generation of electrophysiologists to overcome challenges and open myriads of educational and research opportunities through collaboration across the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) member countries. In our survey, we aimed to assess the various scientific activities within the EHRA Young EP community, and the Young EPs’ interest in participating in international research collaboration networks. The present survey was conducted by the EHRA Young EP Committee in April 2018 (see Table 1 for the list of survey questions). Of the 539 Young EP community members from 48 countries contacted by mail, 229 members (42%) replied within a month. The age of the Young EP community members ranged from 25 years to 42 years (35 ± 4), and 75% of them were male. A total of 21% had not yet finished their cardiology training, 53% had recently finished (<5 years) cardiology training, and 28% of them finished cardiology training more than 5 years ago. The majority of the respondents are currently employed at a University Hospital (70%), 14% are employed at tertiary private hospital, 20% at regional hospital, and only 3% works in private practice. Survey questions Survey questions A PhD degree has already been obtained in about one-third (31%) of the Young EP members, and 21% was busy with a PhD programme. Of the 48% of the respondents without a PhD, more than half was interested in obtaining a PhD in the future. The positions of the Young EP community members varied widely, ranging from resident to head of department (Figure 1), but most function as staff member electrophysiology (48%). Importantly, a large proportion of the Young EPs are regularly involved in research, with 46% of them performing their own research protocols, and only 16% mainly performing clinical practice, not involved in research activities. The remaining 38% is participating in studies. Current position of EHRA Young EP Members responding our survey. Values are expressed as percentage. EP, electrophysiologist. Among those involved in research, the hours spent on research each week was 0–2 h in 23%, 3–5 h in 30%, 5–10 h in 29%, and 19% spends even more than 10 h per week on research, almost 80% spending at least half a day on research. However, most Young EP members (68%) hardly have protected research time (0–0, 1 fte). Interestingly, EHRA Young EP members from Western European countries spend significant more time per week on research when compared with the Eastern European countries (7.0 ± 7.3 h vs. 4.7 ± 5.8 h, P = 0.02). The topics that are studied varied widely between the members (Figure 2). The largest group is focusing on atrial fibrillation (39%), followed by ventricular arrhythmias (17%), and cardiac resynchronization therapy (11%). The performed research is mainly clinical research (85%), when compared with translational science projects (9%), and basic research projects (6%). Personal research grants were obtained by almost one-third, 29% of the members. Specific research focus of current EHRA Young EP members responding our survey. Values are expressed in percentage. AF, atrial fibrillation; CG, cardio-genetics; CM, computer modelling; CRT, cardiac resynchronization therapy; HF, heart failure; ICD, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator; SCD, sudden cardiac death; VA, ventricular arrhythmias. EHRA Young EP members are actively publishing their research results. On the question how many peer-reviewed articles they co-author 32% responded 0–5, 21% 6–10, 18% 10–20, 16% 20–40, and 12% more than 40 articles. Most importantly, of all the interviewed Young EP members, 72% were very interested in using the Young EP community as a potential source for international research collaboration. This survey was performed to obtain more insight in the activities of the EHRA Young EP community members with special interest in research activities. With a response rate of 42%, and a representation of 42 countries, significant and valuable conclusions can be drawn from this one of its kind survey. A rather remarkable conclusion that can be drawn from this survey is that despite the clear restrictions in becoming a member of the Young EP community (age <40 years or <5 years after finishing EP training), the position varies widely from being a resident to being a head of EP division, or even the head of the department of cardiology. On the other hand, the age distribution is not very large, as more than 80% is between 30 years and 38 years of age, and most members have finished their cardiology training rather recently. Our survey clearly illustrates that most of the Young EP members are actively involved in research. The type of research is mainly clinical research, rather than translational or basic research. It is remarkable that the protected research time is very limited, therefore, it is conceivable that most research is performed on the Young EPs’ own time, and it is not compensated for. There is a significant motivation, an internal drive among the Young EP members to be involved in research, and many of them either have a PhD or they are actively seeking, or interested in getting their PhD. This might be of high relevance for the future of EP. Importantly, the interviewed members were all interested in using the Young EP community for international collaboration. One of the goals of the EHRA Young EP committee was to create opportunities in research through collaboration across the Young EP members of ESC member countries, and this survey illustrates clearly highlights its viability and future importance. The EHRA Young EP Committee truly hopes that new, collaborative research projects among Young EP members will be soon possible with support from EHRA. We understand that a potential limitation of our survey is the voluntary participation and selection bias. However, we had a very high response rate (42%), and we assume this sample might be representative of the Young EP community. Nevertheless, bias in survey results can never be fully eliminated, and we acknowledge this limitation of our survey. Conflict of interest: none declared.