In Portugal, as in many other countries worldwide, medical doctors are rarely allowed to have protected research time. As a result, almost all research conducted by physicians is done afterhours, thus potentially compromising the speed and quality of the work that could be achieved otherwise. The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic incontestably demonstrated how important it is to have physicians trained in clinical research. The greatest asset of these physicians is their ability to perform translational research, namely asking research questions that arise from direct hands-on clinical practice and being able to answer them through the analysis of meaningful data that can then be applied in the daily clinical reality. Moreover, they have the skills to deal with the amount of conflicting data generated during a crisis, thus being the perfect link between medicine and science.

Full Letter to the Editor here (English only).