Impact of critical care medicine publications from intensive care department at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh in the last two decades

INTRODUCTION : The volume and quality of biomedical research publications from an institution are considered adequate indicators of the quality of medical care in that institute. King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC), Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is one of the oldest and most distinguished medical centers in the country. METHODS: In this study, we analyzed the number of publications from the Critical Care Unit of the hospital in the past two decades, from 1996 to 2016. The research publications were evaluated on various parameters. Moreover, the impact of their study on global medicine was determined. RESULTS: Our results indicate a steady progression in the number of publications from the institute in the past two decades. An average of 17.3 papers was published each year during this time. Out of the 283 publications from KAMC included in this study, the majority of the publications were original articles, 61 were review articles, 66 were multicenter trial studies and 28 were randomized control trials. The citation profile of the publications was good indicating global impact of the studies. CONCLUSION: The global impact of research as evaluated through published manuscripts in KAMC is overall good. This was deduced from both the increase in the number of publications each year and also the quality of papers as evidenced by the citation index of the papers published between 1996 and 2016.