Experience report from an epidemiology and cardiology research group

Abstract

The establishment of academic groups during medical school is important for the construction and sharing of knowledge and fundamental skills to good medical practice. This paper reports a one-year experience of activities (2017-2018) of a research group in epidemiology and cardiology. The presentation of the motivation reasons, objectives, and performance of the group to provide a structural model that could serve as inspiration and debate for the establishment of other research groups made up from and for medical students from all over the world. During one year of activity, the findings of the group research were presented in scientific events, as well as the publication of articles in scientific journals in the health area, totaling 12 academic papers.  As a means of providing a quantitative evaluation tool for the analysis of the group's activities, the results of the self-assessment developed by the academic members after one year of activities were presented. Considering the high number of biomedical publications and the increase in the demand for knowledge in research and evidence-based medicine in recent years, the establishment of research groups is an alternative to complement theoretical and practical knowledge for medical education, allowing to future professionals a critical view of the production of scientific knowledge, evidence-based medical practice, a better understanding of market demands, and economic interests in health.