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Stem cells and knee osteoarthritis: a legitimate treatment option?
Author(s) -
Wheeler James,
Dabirrahmani Danè,
Hope Nigel
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
anz journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.426
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 1445-1433
DOI - 10.1111/ans.13640
Subject(s) - citation , medicine , library science , computer science
5 years (2012–2016) demonstrates a total number of 405 applicants, with 166 scholarships/Fellowships awarded. This gives a success rate of 41%, which is not only encouraging, being higher than that of the National Health and Medical Research Council (at approximately 20% for Career Development Fellowships and 16% for Project Grants), but also reflects the competitive nature of the RACS scholarship programme. Furthermore, the level of funding per-capita for RACS is approximately $1.8 million per annum for 6086 Fellows and 1245 Trainees, which encouragingly is similar to that of the Royal College of Surgeons of England which awards the equivalent of approximately $5 million for 20 000 members (equating to a similar level of funding per person in each college). An important outcome to note from this review is that 78% of respondents were able to achieve a higher degree as a result of the scholarship programme despite the majority of the scholarships having a 1-year term. This would imply that it might be beneficial to increase the duration of a number of the scholarships to a 2or 3-year term. Without further donations, however, this may be difficult to establish and sustain. Other direct outcomes from the scholarship and the impact on scholars’ careers and quality of health care are difficult to objectively analyse. However, it was encouraging to note that 90.0% of scholars believed they had acquired the skill of critically evaluating scientific information and 67.5% of respondents significantly improved their non-technical skills which are important attributes for all surgeons to accrue, and 70.7% of scholars conducted further independent research following the scholarship-funded period. Furthermore, almost half of the scholars received subsequent research grants that were not awarded by the RACS. The RACS scholarship programme has succeeded in supporting Surgical Trainees/Junior Fellows and makes key contributions to the surgery-related scientific literature.