Research Capacity at Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Centers in China: A Survey of Clinical Investigators

Abstract

Background. The development of an evidence-based approach to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which depends on the generation of good quality evidence, requires an adequate workforce. However, the research capacity of TCM investigators is not known. Study Design. This cross-sectional study was conducted to describe the research capacity of TCM clinical investigators in China. Participants. A total of 584 participants from TCM hospitals and research centers were included. They were asked about the academic and research characteristics, needs for research capacity building, and barriers to clinical research. Results. The majority (80.82%) were qualified to at least a Master's degree, whilst a smaller proportion (40.24%) held a senior professional title. We found that academic outputs were low with the majority (62.16%) authoring less than five publications in total. The most pressing needs for building research capacity identified were training in research methodology (97.43%) and identification of research questions (86.81%), whilst the highest ranking barriers to conducting research were limited motivation, funding (40.72%), and time (37.15%). Conclusion. The methodology training, along with investment in the research workforce, needs to be urgently addressed to improve investigators' research capacity and the development of an evidence-based approach of TCM.

Health research capacity of professional and technical personnel in a first-class tertiary hospital in northwest China: multilevel repeated measurement, 2013–2017, a pilot study

“…The HRC increased with the professional title of participants. Similar to our results, a previous study found a positive correlation between professional titles and publications in traditional Chinese medicine clinical investigators [ 50 ]. Participants with superior research capacity more easily met the requirements of professional title promotion and higher professional titles may bring more academic resources, including funding [ 57 , 58 ].…”

“…A positive correlation was found between research funding and HRC of PTP, similar to a previous study suggesting a positive correlation between the funding support and research success [ 20 ]. As reported in previous studies, limited funding was one of the highest-ranking barriers to conducting research [ 50 ] and restricted collaboration between institutions [ 51 ]. Furthermore, the better funding support is a potential factor to build capacity of research [ 52 , 53 ].…”

A methodological framework for tackling confounding by indication when assessing the treatment effects of Chinese herbal injections in the real world

“…In this case, the target CHI is given subsequent to the administration of first‐line treatment (e.g., pharmaceutical drug), and no additional treatments are involved. Both of these scenarios are relatively straightforward, and the other treatments (e.g., pharmaceutical drug) may be deemed as the baseline treatment regimen or as confounders according to the classic criteria 16,17 …”

“…Both of these scenarios are relatively straightforward, and the other treatments (e.g., pharmaceutical drug) may be deemed as the baseline treatment regimen or as confounders according to the classic criteria. 16,17 The third scenario is intermittent use of CHI-that is, complex sequential use. In such a case, the target CHI may be used intermittently between two or more pharmaceutical drugs.…”

A Competency Model for Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners: A Cross-Sectional Study in China

“…As the first step, we reviewed previous literature, generated the initial item pool and did filtering. We select items which are related to TCM practitioners' competency from previous literature (e.g., Feng, Han, Lai, Wang, & Liu, 2017 [13]; Zheng, Sun, & Wang, 2019 [14]). Then we invited 5 TCM doctors to evaluate these items concerning the relevance and importance to the main theme.…”