AB248. Is the tide out in publishing on the West Coast of Ireland?

Background: Participation in and publication of research is a mandatory part of Orthopaedic training and continuing professional development in Ireland. Hospitals along the West Coast of Ireland vary in their catchment population, trainee allocation and consultant numbers many hospitals only achieving university status in the last number of years. We sought to identify the trends in publishing within hospitals along the west coast and to compare these trends with those on the more University heavy East Coast.

Methods: A retrospective review of all papers published on PubMed using combined search terms of “Orthopaedic” or “Orthopaedic” and the location of each hospital along the west coast (Kerry, Limerick, Galway, Castlebar, Sligo, Ireland). Abstracts were reviewed and categorised according to research evidence level, number of orthopaedic trainees per unit, catchment population and department size.

Results: There was a significant discrepancy in the publishing rates across the different hospitals. Most research published were of level 3 evidence or below. The units with the most publications were Limerick and Galway with minimal research coming from the more rural hospitals. This correlates with catchment population and with the number of Orthopaedic trainees per unit. Within the more rural hospitals the trend has been towards more published research in later years which correlates with receiving university status.

Conclusions: Units with Orthopaedic trainees, university status and larger catchment populations produce a larger volume of research. Much of the research conducted along the west coast is of low level evidence. The quantity of research being published along the west coast is much less in comparison with that published with the Dublin area. Efforts should be made in smaller units to encourage research production and publication.

Keywords: Publishing; research; West Coast