Physician-scientist: attitude of graduates of clinical medicine graduate schools.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the motivation, results and influential factors of the research work of graduates from clinical medicine graduate institutes in Taiwan.


METHODS
There were 679 graduates from 1978 to 2004; all of them completed residency training following medical school before entering graduate study. A survey with 56 questions in four sections was sent to them and 268 (40%) responded. We used SPSS 11.0 for our statistical analysis and cross analysis.


RESULTS
There were 239 (89.2%) males, and 29 (10.8%) females. One hundred and forty-seven (54.9%) respondents had PhD degrees and 98 had Master's degrees (36.5%) while 23 had both degrees (8.6%). The majority of respondents recognized the importance of clinical research (73.5%), while 25.8% thought that physicians do not necessarily have to do research. After graduation from medical school, 54.1% of respondents indicated that clinical care, teaching, and research were prioritized in that order. The graduate school did emphasize the importance of research, but as clinicians, clinical care was still the priority in their careers. A majority of the graduates thought that the graduate school helped to a significant degree in their research. Motivation was important in 83.2% to go to graduate school. The time spent in research ranged from 1 to 4 days a week, and the time spent each research day ranged from 1 to 6 hours. The majority of the researchers thought that they lacked independent research space. For research quantity and quality, physicians with a PhD had more projects than those with Master's degrees in general, with 60.4% participating in laboratory research and 61% in clinical research. Some type of mechanism to reward research activities was present in 69.2% of the institutions or hospitals. The biggest hindrance to medical research was the lack of time for research. The most productive age for publishing was between 41 and 55 years.


CONCLUSIONS
The physician-scientist has a unique ability to bridge the gap between bench/laboratory and bedside. In a changing socioeconomic climate as well as cultural evolution in medical practice, external pressures are unavoidable. The support of research from institutions or government is very important, as are financial resources, space and equipment. For those physicians who are going into research, a special training of strict methodology in research will obviously become necessary.
Kuo
Ken N
KN
Center for Health Policy Research and Development, National Health Research Institutes, Taipei, Taiwan. KENNANK@aol.com
Hwang
Tsann-Long
TL
Chen
Pei-Jer
PJ
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002321:Career Choice; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012106:Research; D012586:Science; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan