Learn the steps on the path to a successful academic career

‘Publish or perish’ not far from the truth.

There is no doubt that being a successful researcher with a long list of publications on your curricula vitae gives you a significant degree of academic freedom.

In academic medicine, publications are the currency, your token to better and bigger things. When people say, usually joking, “publish or perish,” they are not that far from the truth.

Life in academia

I think about academia as a natural progression of several possible events:

• You identify your academic niche and mentor.
• You work hard on creating an effective research agenda.
• You spend many years publishing your work.
• Slowly but surely you become an expert in your field.
• People start getting interested in what you are doing and in what you have to say.
• You master the art of teaching and lecturing.
• Opportunities of many kinds and at different places begin to arise.
• You achieve a significant degree of academic freedom.

All of these steps are challenging and not every academician achieves them all. We fellows are at the beginning phase of our career. We need to find our individual way to put these steps in motion and unleash this chain reaction.

Another fellow’s perspective

Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, a young and successful physician researcher, shares some of the key elements needed to build a successful academic career. Nasir is a 31-year-old cardiac MRI PET CT fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also an instructor in the radiology department and an adjunct faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Preventive Cardiology Center. Besides his MD, he earned his MPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He has been an author on more than 80 publications, some of them in journals like Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Circulation. He is also a reviewer for several cardiology and public health journals. At his young age, he is in the process of publishing several articles in which he is the senior author.

Juan Rivera

There is no doubt that his hard work has paid off. He is definitely experiencing the natural progression of steps towards academic success and, therefore, academic freedom.

Nasir had a lot to say to me about being a good researcher and a prolific author. He advised that fellows always keep in mind their overall goal: Where do you want to be in 10 to 15 years? Once you know, decide what you need to do to get there. What skills are required? Perhaps it requires you to go back to school and learn statistics or epidemiology. Alternatively, it may require lots of bench research or getting a doctorate degree in your area of interest. Don’t be afraid to swim against the current, to be innovative and follow your heart, he advised.

Once you have identified your true calling, stick to it. Your chances of success increase when you enjoy and feel passionate about your work, he said. You need to develop the ability to ask the right research question; a good question. In order to be able to do that, it is essential that you fully understand your field. What are the knowledge gaps? What are the burning issues that need to be answered?

Simple ideas usually represent the best ideas. It is important to develop the skill of communicating results and observations in a simple way.

Most people can’t succeed without a good team and without the collaboration of other professionals in the field. Try to work with like-minded individuals but never forget that sometimes it is good to have a teammate that provides an alternative idea or explanation.

Always acknowledge the need to learn more. The more you learn, the bigger your idea universe will get.

Probably the most important element, especially early on, is to find a good mentor. An excellent mentor is one who understands your level of skills, knows what your career goals are, and is able to guide you through a successful path.

“I owe more than 90% of my success to the truly amazing mentors that I have encountered during my career path,” Nasir said.

I have been working with Nasir for several years and; although he will not admit it, he is now becoming a mentor for other fellows and residents. Like him, they have a desire to be successful academicians. I wish the best of luck to him and to all of you, who like me, are trying to find our place in the complex and challenging world of academic medicine.

Juan Rivera, MD, is a Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for Prevention of Heart Disease and a member of the Cardiology Today Fellows Advisory Board. He also writes a cardiovascular prevention blog for Hispanics called Corazon Hispano. The blog can be viewed at: corazonhispano.blogspot.com.