Research in Gastroenterology: How Well Have we Done?

Introduction: Concerns have been expressed in many countries, including the USA; that there is a decline in clinical research. In fact with the randomized controlled trial appears to be the presence of multinational drug companies.

Aim: The aim of this study is to look at the balance between clinical and basic research presented at the bi-annual meeting of the ISG.

Methods: All abstracts of the meeting published in the Irish Journal of Medical Sciences from 1993 to 1999 were obtained. Abstracts were then evaluated in terms of source and type of study.

Results: During the years 1993 to 1999, there were 762 abstracts presented in the ISG. 498 abstracts were from institutions in Dublin (65%). 151 abstracts were contributions from the rest of the republic (20%) and 97 abstracts were from Northern Ireland (13%). Foreign contribution accounted for 2% of the abstracts. Clinical and laboratory investigations accounted for 282 of the abstracts (37%) and 193 abstracts were clinical audit or case series (25%). Basic Sciences accounted for 24% of the abstracts and 5% of the abstracts were animal studies. There were 45 prospective clinical trial in this period (6%) and 9 randomized controlled trial (1%).

Conclusion: There appears to be a good balance between clinical and basic research presented at the ISG. However, there are very few randomized controlled trials. Perhaps the society should consider measures to encourage more randomized controlled trials.