Research Burden in the Portuguese Residency Program: Cardiology’s Unique Challenge

This study analyses the research output expected for the final curricular evaluation of Portuguese medical residency programs, with particular focus on cardiology. All publicly available specialty-specific evaluation grids were reviewed in December 2024. Cardiology required 46 research items to attain maximum scoring, including research papers and congress abstracts stratified by journal quartile. This was the highest requirement among all specialties, compared to a median of 11 across all specialties. Uniquely, cardiology was the only specialty to quantitatively specify participation in research projects, clinical trials, and registries. In contrast, it scored below average in the most recent national residency satisfaction survey. However, no significant correlation was observed between the number of required research items and overall satisfaction. These findings suggest a potential misalignment between curricular evaluation criteria and the actual conditions of residency training. Reviewing these requirements may help create a more balanced and sustainable training environment.