Study Design of International Research Publications of the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital

Abstract

         The number of international publications is a key performance indicator to show whether the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital is excellence in research. The knowledge from these publications should also help formulate health advocacy and health policy. To reach this goal, number of international publications should be increased.  Thus, the objective of this study is to evaluate the international publications at the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital by using SCOPUS database for data collection and analysis.

         This retrospective study was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital 2012-2014.  There were 642 - 707 faculty staff during that year and 248 - 271 international publications during the study period.  The ratio of research done by faculty staff was 0.37 - 0.40 paper per person per year which was less than the target of 0.50 paper per person per year. And also only 25% of the faculty staff had international publications.

         Comparing research design, the researchers found that the percentage of basic science and translation medicine research, health science and clinical epidemiology research and clinical research was 17.26, 34.40 and 48.34 respectively. When grouping the research using patient characteristic, causes of diseases and organ affected, the researchers found that most of the patients were adult (75.58%) with causes of diseases were infection 15.86%, tumor or malignancy 14.32% and others which occurred later not infection tumor or malignancy and trauma 63.43% and most of the organ affected were diseases that affected multiple organs 24.81%, urinary and reproductive system 12.02%, Thalassemia or Hemophilia 9.46%, pulmonary system 8.18%, bone and muscle 6.91%, brain 6.39%, gastrointestinal system 6.14%, cardiovascular system 5.88%, endocrine 5.50%, etc.

         However, a way to produce quality research with cited references needs qualified faculty staff who are keen in basic science and translational medicine research to increase this research design parallel with health science and clinical epidemiology research and clinical research. In addition, research should be focused on the strength of the faculty staff in the fields of cardiovascular disease, HIV and AIDs, Thalassemia or Hemophilia, endocrine and malignancy. The vision of Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital should be reached accordingly.