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Review
. 2012 Apr;107(4):496-500.
doi: 10.1038/ajg.2011.450.

Increasing complexity of clinical research in gastroenterology: implications for the training of clinician-scientists

Frank I Scott  1 , Ryan A McConnell, Matthew E Lewis, James D Lewis
Affiliations
Review

Increasing complexity of clinical research in gastroenterology: implications for the training of clinician-scientists

Frank I Scott et al. Am J Gastroenterol. 2012 Apr.

Abstract

Objectives: Significant advances have been made in clinical and epidemiologic research methods over the past 30 years. We sought to demonstrate the impact of these advances on published gastroenterology research from 1980 to 2010.

Methods: Twenty original clinical articles were randomly selected from each of three journals from 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010. Each article was assessed for topic, whether the outcome was clinical or physiologic, study design, sample size, number of authors and centers collaborating, reporting of various statistical methods, and external funding.

Results: From 1980 to 2010, there was a significant increase in analytic studies, clinical outcomes, number of authors per article, multicenter collaboration, sample size, and external funding. There was increased reporting of P values, confidence intervals, and power calculations, and increased use of large multicenter databases, multivariate analyses, and bioinformatics.

Conclusions: The complexity of clinical gastroenterology and hepatology research has increased dramatically, highlighting the need for advanced training of clinical investigators.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential competing interests: None.

Conflicts of Interest/Study Support:

Guarantor of the article: Frank I. Scott, MD

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trends in publication content from 1980 to 2010. There was a significant increase in analytic studies over 4 time points assessed as demonstrated in this graph, with an increase from 50% in 1980 to 88% in 2010 (p <0.001). This was predominantly due to a significant increase in case-control and cohort studies coupled with a decline in descriptive studies, with clinical trials remaining relatively stable.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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