{
  "abstract": "At the end of 2026, I will have been a clinical academic in gastroenterology for 25 years. I have enjoyed my time, so far, thoroughly, but it has been hard work, and I have had to make some sacrifices to be ‘successful’. I entered academia in an era where there was less of a fixed career structure. This meant there was little in the way of formal training or career guidance but, at the same time, allowed for more autonomy and freedom. Nowadays, people need to demonstrate commitment to an academic career increasingly early on. It would be hard to imagine someone drifting through for the first 4–5 years after medical school, as I did, and ending up as a professor in a university teaching hospital. I struggled to navigate through the academic system for much of my first 10–15 years, even when appointed as a consultant and associate professor. I repeatedly found myself at a crossroads in life, wondering whether to continue to pursue academia or whether to switch tracks back to full-time clinical medicine. As the first person in my family to complete a university degree, let alone to study medicine, these were always difficult decisions, and I lacked a local mentor with influence and knowledge. I, therefore, always had to make them myself without much in the way of advice.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Gastroenterology Institute, St James’s University Hospital, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Alexander C Ford"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Reflecting on a career as a clinical academic in gastroenterology",
  "uid": "ef642c3e-e26f-5292-8e8c-bb233060b858"
}