Virtual medical research mentoring

Background: Medical research is important for professional advancement, and mentoring is a key means by which students and early-career doctors can engage in research. Contrasting international research collaborations, research mentoring programmes are often geographically limited. As the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased use of online technology for classes and conferences, a virtual, international approach to medical research mentoring may be valuable. Approach: We hereby describe our experience at the Cardiovascular Analytics Group, a virtual international medical research mentoring group established in 2015. We make use of virtual platforms in multi-level mentoring with peer mentoring and emphasise active participation, early leadership, an open culture, accessible research support and a distributed research workflow. Evaluation: With 63 active members from 14 different countries, the Group has been successful in training medical students and early-career medical graduates in academic medicine. Our members have led over 100 peer-reviewed publications of original research and reviews since 2015, winning 13 research prizes during this time. Implications: Our accessible-distributed model of virtual international medical research collaboration and multi-level mentoring is viable and efficient and caters to the needs of contemporary healthcare. Others should consider building similar models to improve medical research mentoring globally.