Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: The Chinese government increased investments in research into traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) during the past decade. The output in terms of published research papers in recognized journals is not satisfactory. One of the challenges is the lack of research capacity from the researchers.
Objectives: To understand the needs and to explore an efficient way to build research capacity for TCM researchers in China.
Methods: A series of semi-structured questionnaires were issued to 1280 participants to four national training programs between Aug 2011 and Oct 2012. The questions covered demographic data of the participants, knowledge and capacity needs for doing research, ways of learning, and obstacles to doing clinical studies.
Results: The response rate was 45.6% (584). Male respondents accounted for 49.5%, and female 50.5%; average age 35.9 ± 7.7 years old, and average length of time spent working 10.8 ± 9.4 years. Doctorial respondents accounted for 29.6%, and master’s degree for 51.2%. Senior professional ranks accounted for 40.2%, and middle for 27.4%. Research personnel taking nation-level research projects accounted for 12.5%, and those with provincial level for 28.9%. Average number of papers in the literature read monthly was 7.67 ± 15.49 papers, often two to five papers (35.6%), and average number for publication is 8.14 ± 10.29 papers. About 56.5% respondents have studied medical statistics, 54.1% learned clinical epidemiology, and 30.1% learned evidence-based medicine. The logistic regression results showed that publication was related to the professional ranks, working time, projects taking part in, and literature reading. The major difficulties for clinical research consist of: 1) clinical work pressure, the research time limit (37.1%); 2) lack of a guarantee and incentive mechanism, lack of professional research authorized size and funding, leading to lack of enthusiasm (40.7%); 3) lack of knowledge about research methodology (35.2%), etc.
Conclusions: Based on the general lack of research capacity and poor research quality, there is an need to develop a model for research capacity building for TCM researchers.
Objectives: To understand the needs and to explore an efficient way to build research capacity for TCM researchers in China.
Methods: A series of semi-structured questionnaires were issued to 1280 participants to four national training programs between Aug 2011 and Oct 2012. The questions covered demographic data of the participants, knowledge and capacity needs for doing research, ways of learning, and obstacles to doing clinical studies.
Results: The response rate was 45.6% (584). Male respondents accounted for 49.5%, and female 50.5%; average age 35.9 ± 7.7 years old, and average length of time spent working 10.8 ± 9.4 years. Doctorial respondents accounted for 29.6%, and master’s degree for 51.2%. Senior professional ranks accounted for 40.2%, and middle for 27.4%. Research personnel taking nation-level research projects accounted for 12.5%, and those with provincial level for 28.9%. Average number of papers in the literature read monthly was 7.67 ± 15.49 papers, often two to five papers (35.6%), and average number for publication is 8.14 ± 10.29 papers. About 56.5% respondents have studied medical statistics, 54.1% learned clinical epidemiology, and 30.1% learned evidence-based medicine. The logistic regression results showed that publication was related to the professional ranks, working time, projects taking part in, and literature reading. The major difficulties for clinical research consist of: 1) clinical work pressure, the research time limit (37.1%); 2) lack of a guarantee and incentive mechanism, lack of professional research authorized size and funding, leading to lack of enthusiasm (40.7%); 3) lack of knowledge about research methodology (35.2%), etc.
Conclusions: Based on the general lack of research capacity and poor research quality, there is an need to develop a model for research capacity building for TCM researchers.