New publications from RespNET trainees

North East Thames trainees are a prolific lot! The start of 2016 has seen a number of publications from trainees, and it’s great to see such a diversity of interests and research methods represented. If you are interested in writing, or research in general, why not speak to one of these trainees at the next training day?

Image from wikimedia

Dr Ricardo José has published a letter in the Royal College of Physician’s journal, highlighting differences between invasive and non-invasive forms of Aspergillus tracheobronchitis. For more on Aspergillus, have a look at the notes from Prof Brown’s talk at last year’s Royal Free training day.

• José RJ, Bhowmik A, Brown JS. A cough that doesn’t fit the mould. Clinical Medicine. 2016 Feb 1;16(1):95-6.

Dr James Brown has published a letter in the ERJ examining QuantiFERON-TB Plus (QFT-Plus), a new IGRA that includes a set of peptides designed to stimulate M. tuberculosis-specific CD8+ T-cells. He suggests that “the increased interferon-γ release by combined stimulation of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells observed in the newly added antigen tube (TB2) might be advantageous for improving the assay’s accuracy in patients with low CD4+ T-cell counts.”

• Barcellini L, Borroni E, Brown J, Brunetti E, Codecasa L, Cugnata F, Dal Monte P, Di Serio C, Goletti D, Lombardi G, Lipman M. First independent evaluation of QuantiFERON-TB Plus performance. European Respiratory Journal. 2016 Feb 12:ERJ-02033.

Dr Laura-Jane Smith has published: a paper exploring the place of portfolios in revalidation, which stems from her time as a Clinical Teaching Fellow and interest in medical education; and also a rapid response to an article in the BMJ on the value of qualitative research and a diversity of research methods.

• Furmedge DS, Griffin A, O’Keeffe C, Verma A, Smith LJ, Gill D. Paper trials: a qualitative study exploring the place of portfolios in making revalidation recommendations for Responsible Officers. BMC Medical Education. 2016 Dec 1;16(1):1-9.
• Smith, LJ. Re: An open letter to The BMJ editors on qualitative research. BMJ. 2016 Feb.

Letters to the editor and rapid responses are an accessible (and cite-able) way into the world of academic medicine, particularly for those who are not on OOPR and therefore do not have dedicated time to spend on data acquisition and analysis. Why not consider submitting a response to an article, after your next journal club?

Have you published a letter or paper? Congratulations! Let us know so that we can celebrate your achievement.