Importance of clinical research in spotlight

Countries like America, Canada and the United Kingdom carry out a lot of clinical research, which plays an important role in fighting against a number of diseases.
Saudi Arabia has many resources that could be used to contribute to such research work.
Nevertheless, in 2011, Saudi Arabia had only produced 3,300 research publications, a very low number in comparison to other countries. In general, a major lacuna can be seen in the Muslim world in terms of publications that came out in 2011. To compare: the US publicized 220,000 publications according to the PubMed database, whereas the number was 68,000 in Canada. The National Guard Health Affairs has promised to provide optimum health care to its personnel, their dependents, and other eligible patients. “Evidence-based healt care and research endeavors have been endorsed by the National Guard Hospital for over decades. The collaborative health professional group, coordinated by the department of medicine, has taken another positive step in this direction with its initiative ‘Clinical Research, From Appraisal to Synthesis of Evidence,’” said Mansour Ahmed M. Al-Jandi, the executive director of the National Guard Health Affairs in the western region.  The three-day international conference and workshop at Jeddah’s Crowne Plaza Hotel was recently organized with the cooperation of Harvard Medical School America.
“The aim of this event is to push the wheel of clinical research in the Kingdom. We understand there is very little clinical research being done compared to other countries. Although our health care is of good quality, there is a gap between the level of care we have and the work we do. What we are contributing to medical research is not enough, so this meeting with international experts is a way to remove the obstacles to present more research work," said Dr. Abdullah Al-Malki, a consultant and transplanting nephrologist at King Abdulaziz Medical City Jeddah as well as chairman of the organizing committee for clinical research.
He added medicine studies had changed; it’s not based on experts' opinions and ideas, but on evidence. Therefore, Saudi physicians and researchers should learn how to synthesize and generate this evidence, which is vital for the medical field upon which doctors can base their practice, he said.
“Clinical research is important to bring best evidence-based care for our patients and community. We are considering this in our undergraduate studies at universities. We must focus on teaching the basics of research and epidemiology to all our young doctors and pharmacists,” Al-Malki added.
Al-Malki also said that they had full support and motivation on a national level, as King Abdullah International Medical Research Center would help in establishing and promoting clinical research.
“The most important thing is to work in collaboration with different health sectors in the country. These sectors together can share their experience to help in research work and exchange their view. Database collection on a national level is very important, but it is not possible without collaboration of different health sectors in the country,” Al-Malki explained. Dr. K. H. Mujtaba Quadri, course director and chairman of the department of medicine at King Abdulaziz Medical City Jeddah, said they had been handling the concept of evidence-based medicine research in the Kingdom for the last 15 to 20 years.
“Clinical research is a significant aspect in discovering new cures, new products and new data to analyze new results. However, clinical research requires a lot of mentoring and understanding of the process, including how to make a proposal, to prepare questions, develop study designs, methods, statistics, resources, funding, and how it will be published,” said Quadri “We can see there has not much research being conducted in Saudi Arabia. I think conferences on the international level can tool our young Saudi physicians to understand the process of research, terminology, indulge in the project and collaborate as a team,” he explained.
He said he wanted to address and motivate Saudi physicians to do their research in the Kingdom, as definite plans had been developed by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with King Abdullah Center for Science and Technology for funding the projects of local researchers.
“The research done at any other place is not applicable in solving problems locally, that’s why we want our investigators to understand the process. Once they comprehend the research processes they can work independently to achieve the target the nation needs,” he added.
He also said conditions like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, vitamin D deficiency, motor vehicle accidents, youth behavior, cardiovascular issues, pneumonia, venous thrombosis embolism, and heart attacks should be setting the tone for what kind of research needed to be done, not only in terms of preventive measures but treatment modalities as well.
At the moment, 180 clinical trials have been registered in 2012 at the National Guard Health Affairs.
Felipe Fregni, professor of neurology and physical medicine and habilitation at Harvard Medical School, explained there were two aspects of clinical research: One is to develop novel interventions and the other is testing.
“We are at a stage in which we are producing a lot of knowledge-based research on how diseases work, progress and their biological mechanisms. The only way to apply this knowledge to develop the treatment is clinical trials. Understanding clinical research is very important, keeping in mind that the funds are limited for this,” he said.
He added that to maintain a good health system in the country, Saudi Arabia also needed to have its own clinical research.
Clinicians should know the methodology of clinical research — how to read the research paper and to know which treatment they should give to their patients.
Dr. Lotfi B. Merabet, assistant professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, emphasized on the mutual research done by Saudi researchers and Americans. “I hope people from America and Saudi Arabia will work together on different research. It would be interesting to see the priorities of Saudi people and the health department,” said Merabet.
The workshop was on first-hand knowledge and practice of clinical research, how to start a research questionnaire, and the process of writing a proposal for clinical research.