Evaluation of performance of the Medical Research Department in ‘Research naive’ non-academic hospital: An audit

INTRODUCTION: Conducting medical research is not limited to academia and pharmaceutical industry but even multispeciality hospitals need to venture in this area along with patient care. To develop research culture among well-established non-acedemic hospital is always difficult and challenging task. This article attempts to evaluate the performance of the department in ‘Research naïve’ hospital in the last two years and review the strengths and challenges it faced at each step. METHODS: This was a retrospective document analysis study evaluating the steps towards setting and sustaining of Medical Research Department of Bhaktivedanta Hospital during the period of January 2013 to June 2015 (30 Months). The authors developed a checklist (along with performance indicators) to assess the Preparatory phase and Activity phase of the research department which were evaluated by Institute Quality Management Team. Each step of both phases was also reviewed in terms of strengths and challenges as perceived by the authors. RESULTS: During 2 year journey of research naïve Hospital, Institute had witnessed Hospital initiated (n=24, 59%) and sponsored projects (n=17, 41%) in all specialties. HRC reviewed (n=2.13) projects per meeting for administrative consideration while IEC reviewed (n=2.15) projects for scientific and ethical review. Challenges during preparatory phases were circumvent by immense cooperation of hospital management for initial investment, sensitization through research workshops for consultants, established procedures and trained support manpower and constant encouragement by research coordinator. CONCLUSION: Considering evaluation of 41 studies in very first 2 years in ‘Research naive non academic institute demonstrated successful implementation of trio model of Hospital Research Committee for administrative review, IEC for scientific-ethical review, centralized MRD for coordinating all research projects under one roof which may act as role model for Research naive institutes