Editorial

Abstract

The establishment of new medical universities in public and private sector across the country has widened the scope of medical education. A large number of new skills are now being formally accredited as allied health sciences. This enhancing number of medical and allied health professionals should bring a positive impact upon quality research in medical field. According to a report of National Institute of Health (NIH), in 2018 there were 719 biomedical research projects conducted in University of Oxford, 715 in University College of London and 350 in University of Manchester (httos://worldreport.nih.gov/app/#!/).
In Pakistan, several organizations are allocating funds for biomedical research. The data from these organizations indicates that the funding for health research by the public or private sectors institutes has increased significantly over last two decades. The total budget on medical research by Pakistan Health Research Council (PHRC) has increased almost 2·5 times between 2007–08 and 2011–12. To meet the current challenges of researchers working in local universities of Pakistan, Higher Education Commission (HEC) is running the National Research Program for Universities (NRPU). In 2015-16, HEC provided Rs. 1123.71 million to different universities under NRPU and Rs. 180 million under Faculty Startup Research Grants.
To promote quality research or to produce good researchers, sincere efforts by institutes and from government and more studies relevant to the locally prevalent diseases are needed to be started with proper study design and professionally analyzed statistics. This will bring an evidence-based change in local practice and setting own standards rather than following the guidelines which are mainly based on the studies conducted in other populations having different racial origin and socioeconomic status. University hospitals should be benchmark in conducting clinical trials of new treatment modalities and these Institutions may enroll themselves in international clinical trials as well.
In conducting original medical research, a large number of human participations, finances and publication technicalities are involved. The aim and philosophy should only be to contribute something new to the management arena of ailing humanity.