FOUNDATIONS OF WHY CLINICAL RESEARCH SHOULD BE DEVELOPED IN CHILEAN REGIONS

Abstract

Chile spends 0.34% of GDP on research vs. the OECD which declares an average of 2.66%. Measured the result in number of publications and citations of articles originating in our country, by 2021 we had 19,413 publications and 82,289 citations in 11 years. When a coun­try has low income, and the percentage allocated to research is very low, it must be extremely careful in determining what topics will be financed, the quality of the researchers and the projects they apply for, and the benefit they will bring to the country. The waste of resources is caused by expenditure on poorly designed research with useless, non-publishable results. Within this panorama, one migth ask: where to invest in research? Is it justified to conduct research in the provinces or to allocate scarce resources only to centers with a long history and high research productivity? The fundamentals for supporting research in provinces, where are young universities are as follows: 1) Great ideas can be born anywhere, which must give way to research. 2) The methodology must be accurate so that the results are useful and publishable in prestigious journals. What is not published does not exist. 3) There are problems specific to some regions that require a response based on research. 4) The published data, originating from studies in other populations and other realities, are not always applicable to our entire population. 5) Medical schools have emerged in various regions, and their students need an “academic environment” and part of this is having clinical researchers. 6) The main principles of research bioethics must always be respected.