Health research barriers in the faculties of two medical institutions in India.

backgroundHealth policy formation refers to the design of a conceptual framework to find possibilities, facilitate feasibilities, and identify strong and weak points, as well as insufficiencies, by research. Doing research should clarify qualities and standards for policy and decision-making to enable the success of development of health care in a country. Evaluation of the impact of health interventions is particularly poorly represented in public health research. This study attempted to identify barriers and facilitators of health research among faculty members in two major institutions in India, ie, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS) and Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in Delhi.

methodsThe participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire that canvassed individual characteristics, ie, years of experience, place of work, academic rank, final educational qualification, work setting, educational group, primary activity, and number of publications in the previous 5 years. Barriers and facilitators were categorized into personal, resources, access, and administration groups. The data were processed using SPSS version 16, independent t-tests, Chi-square tests, and multivariate logistic regression.

resultsThe total number of faculty members at both institutions was 599, 456 (76%) of whom participated in this study. The primary activities reported by faculty at UCMS (teaching) and Faculty at AIIMS reported (Research and Provision of health care services) as a major activity (P < 0.01). The majority of faculty members at UCMS and GTB Hospital were professors, whereas most of the faculty members at AIIMS were associate professors (P < 0.01). Of 47 barriers and facilitating factors, there were 26 barriers and 21 facilitating factors at AIIMS and 39 barriers and eight facilitating factors at UCMS. Faculty members at UCMS had 6.572 times more barriers to health research than those at AIIMS.

conclusionClose proximity between AIIMS and the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Medical Library, housing, transport, and a good reference library with an adequate knowledge support system provided suitable opportunities for faculty members at AIIMS to do research. To overcome the barriers, institutions must have enough financial support, decreased nonessential clinical, laboratory, and service schedule duties on the part of faculty members, preparation of good and relevant statistical courses and workshops, and access to good statistical software packages.