Progress and prospects of medical education research in Asian Countries

Sultan Ayoub Meo; Kamran Sattar; Chaudhary Habib Ullah; Sami Alnassar; Waseem Hajjar; Adnan Mahmood Usmani

doi:10.12669/pjms.35.6.1147

Progress and prospects of medical education research in Asian Countries

Pak J Med Sci. 2019 Nov-Dec;35(6):1475-1481. doi: 10.12669/pjms.35.6.1147.

Authors

Sultan Ayoub Meo¹, Kamran Sattar², Chaudhary Habib Ullah³, Sami Alnassar⁴, Waseem Hajjar⁵, Adnan Mahmood Usmani⁶

Affiliations

¹ Sultan Ayoub Meo, MBBS, PhD. Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
² Kamran Sattar, MBBS, M Med Ed. Medical Education, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
³ Chaudhary Habib ullah, MBBS, FCPS. Orthopedic Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Sami Alnassar, MD, FRCS. Thoracic Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Waseem Hajjar, MD, FRCS. Thoracic Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Adnan Mahmood Usmani, MA, MCSE. University Diabetes Centre, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Medical education has a profound impact on health care system. Progress in achieving medical education research goals varies over time and across countries. This study aimed to investigate the medical education research ambience in Asia during the period 1965-2015.

Methods: We investigated the bibliometric indicators of 49 Asian states in medical education research from 1965-2015. The data about Asian countries, their per capita GDP, expenditure on R&D, universities and indexed scientific journals were collected. We recorded medical education related research documents published in Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science, Thomson Reuters during the period 1965-2015.

Results: Asian countries collectively published 12721799 research articles, among them 40628 (0.31%) publications were in medical education. China contributed total of 3351565 articles among which 5414 (0.16%) research articles were in medical education; India added 1328725 papers with 4563 (0.34%) in medical education; Japan produced 3080257 papers with 4199 (0.13%) in medical education; Israel 561531 with 3848 (0.68%) in medical education; and lastly, Georgia contributed a total of 296532 research articles with 2565 (0.86%) in medical education.

Conclusions: In Asia, the top five countries in medical education research are China, Georgia, Israel, Japan and India. The countries at low ranking are Yemen, Palestine, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Syria and Armenia. In Asian states, the overall performance in medical science research needs policies to enhance its impact globally. Medical universities should offer research programs for learning and understanding the challengeable issues in medical education research.

Keywords: Asia; Indexed journal; Medical education; Research.