Interdisciplinarity research: it’s here, it’s the future.

“I think what typifies research today, which is different from even ten years ago, is if you want to do really good research, you need to have multiple methods, multiple disciplines working together”.

That is the chief editor of The Lancet medical journal, Richard Horton’s view on some of the essential ingredients required to do great work. “Science”, he says, “is now interdisciplinary, it depends upon teams – the days where a single scientist worked in a lab and got a Nobel prize are long over”. In emphasising the merits of interdisdciplinary research, Horton is not alone; it is a view that has become commonplace and resonates beyond scientific fields.

Reflecting on the importance of the Academy of Medical Sciences’ Spring Meeting for trainee clinician scientists, which is the subject of this week’s podcast, participants were unanimous about the advantage of interdisciplinary approaches. The rich variety of biomedical research they presented provided substantive evidence of cross-specialty collaboration. Talking to participants about their work made clear the benefits which accrue from using approaches that fuse a variety of specialisms. Research by one of the people interviewed for the podcast, Dr Dimitrios Siassakos, employed clinicians and social scientists, including obstetricians, midwives, anaesthetists, paediatricians, linguists and psychologists, to address ways to improve the outcomes and experience for acute emergency patients. “It’s going really well”, he said, with the training methods based on the group’s findings rolled out across the UK and in other parts of the world as well, from Zimbabwe to the United States.

Like other participants, his work clearly illustrates how multiple researchers, working together, each employing their individual expertise and skills, build a more holistic understanding and response to the question in hand. In clinical academia this is crucial for advancing medical provision and delivering better outcomes for patients.

Cross-speciality conferences, like the Spring Meeting, provide the opportunity to meet face-to-face with colleagues from across disciplines, and are a nexus for collaboration and exchanging ideas.

Although the Spring Meeting is attended by clinician scientists, the Academy of Medical Sciences is also keen that the public are informed about the research being undertaken by their fellows. Have a listen to this week’s podcast to hear about their work, and also explore our archive of podcasts covering topics from bees to space science. Even if we are not all researchers, it is well within our capacity to engage with academic research and build-up a rich cross-disciplinary knowledge.

If you are an academic with a piece of research (on any topic) that you would like to discuss for a podcast, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at thepod@podacademy.org

Tags: Indisciplinary research