1. Importance of Research
in Medical Sciences
Prof. Dr. Ram Sharan Mehta
B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences

2. What is Research?
• Research is the endeavor to discover new
facts, procedures, methods, and techniques by
the scientific study of a course of critical
investigation.
• Research is a scientific study or investigation
that is pursued to discover facts, revise
theories or laws based on new facts and
practical application of these. -webster,1992

3. • Basic research: necessary to
generate new knowledge &
technology to deal with major
unsolved problems.
• Applied research: necessary to
identify priority problems to design
& evaluate policies & programs
which will deliver greatest health
benefit by using available resources.

4. Medical Research
• Biomedical research (or experimental medicine)
is in general simply known as medical research.
• It is the basic research, applied research, or
translational research conducted to aid and
support the development body of knowledge in
the field of medicine.
• An important kind of medical research is clinical
research, which is distinguished by the
involvement of patients.
• Other kinds of medical research include pre-
clinical research, for example on animals, and
basic medical research, for example in genetics.

5. • Research is vital for the progress of
modern medicine and has created an
ever evolving medical world.
• New discoveries are being uncovered
everyday which are influencing
medical practice.

6. • Health research has high value to society. It
can provide important information about
disease trends and risk factors, outcomes of
treatment or public health interventions,
functional abilities, patterns of care, and
health care costs and use.
• crucial for comparing and improving the use
of drugs, vaccines, medical devices, and
diagnostics.

7. General purpose of research:
1.To satisfy curiosity
2.To solve problems
3.To collect facts
4.To contribute to knowledge
7

8. Purpose of medical research
• Prevent, cure, or treat disease and
related human conditions
• Make the lives of our patients better

9. • Medical research has been
responsible for hundreds of
groundbreaking discoveries that
have improved and saved lives,
enabled health care to become
more effective and efficient, and
lowered overall health care costs.

10. • Medical research also lowers costs by
advancing treatments to chronic, debilitating
diseases and improving early detection and
wellness promotion.
• Decision-making approach in health care
practice is a complex task and should be
based on the best available level of scientific
evidence.

11. Basis for calculating Vital Health Statistics

12. Basis for calculating Health Service and Coverage

13. Importance of Research in Medical Science
• Everybody is concerned about their
health.
• It is important to almost everybody since
it keeps us alive and healthy for a longer
period of time.
• The life expectancy of the human being is
greatly increased.

14. 14
Human life expectancy.
Date Life Expectancy
Years
2000 BC 18
500 AD 22
1400 33
1790 36
1850 41
1900 50
1946 67
1991 76

15. AGED POPULATION
Year/Decade Over 60 yrs % Over 65 yrs %
1870 1,937 5 1,154 2.9
1880 2,822 5.6 1,723 3.4
1890 3,887 6.2 2,417 3.8
1900 4,860 6.4 3,080 4
1910 6,225 6.8 3,950 4.3
1920 7,925 7.5 4,933 4.6
1930 10,358 8.4 6,633 5.4
1940 13,694 10.4 9,019 6.8
1950 18,328 12.1 12,270 8.1
1960 23,772 13.1 16,679 9.2
1970 28,682 14.1 20,177 9.9
15

16. 16

17. • Without research, many diseases that can
now be treated would cripple people or result
in early death.
• New drugs, new ways to treat old and new
illnesses, and new ways to prevent diseases in
people at risk of developing them, can only
result from health research.

18. • Many things that we now take for granted are
the result of medical studies that have been
done in the past.
• For instance, blood pressure pills, vaccines to
prevent infectious diseases, transplant
surgery, and chemotherapy are all the result
of research.

19. Importance…
• It cure disease and keeps us alive longer.
• In basic level it helps to find the causes of
diseases and how they spread, so that
work in ways to prevent and cure it.
• Developing the treatment massive amount
of research is required among the clinical
trials to find out best treatment options.

20. Importance…
• Other important areas of medical research
is diagnosis i.e. invention of diagnostic
tests e.g. HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria, Kala-azar,
Heart attack, cancer etc. so that early and
effective diagnosis can be made.
• It improves the quality of life of the people
suffering with chronic disease, e.g. HIV/AIDS,
Cancer, Diabetes, Hypertension etc.

21. Importance…
• Support in relieving the pain and suffering
e.g. Accidents, Injuries, cancer etc.
• Improves the quality of life of the geriatric
people. Helps in recover form geriatric
problems like hearing, vision, transplants etc.
• Support the couple having infertility: by
invitro-fertilization, artificial insemination
etc.

22. Use of Health Science research
• Uses of
–Public policy
–Public health
programs
–Interventions
–Partnerships
–Investigation
–Treatment
–Libraries/Publishers
Health Indicators, Part III
–Degree
–Grants
–Publications
–Public health officials
–Pharmaceuticals: drug
trials
–Academics
–Anyone with an
interest in public
health data

23. Helps in find out the indicators
• Mortality indicators
• Morbidity indicators
• Fertility indicators
• Socio-economic indicators
• Health policy indicators
• Quality of life indicators
• Nutritional status indicators
• Health care delivery indicators
• Health care utilization indicators

24. Health Sciences Research
Non-interventional Interventional
Explorative
Descriptive
Analytical
Pre-experimental
Quasi-
experimental
True-Experiment
- Case study
- Case series
- Cross-sectional
- Longitudinal
- Etc.
- Cross-
sectional
- Case control
- Cohort
- Etc
- CRD
- RBD
- FD
- etc
24
Note: CRD-complete random design, RBD-random block design, FD- factorial design

25. Relative strength of various study designs
(based on level of evidence for a cause & effect
relationship)
25
Strength Design
Strong Clinical trial
Cohort study
Case control study
Cross sectional
Case series
Weak Case report
Dr. R S Mehta, MSND, BPKIHS

26. • Scientific research plays a very important
role in our efforts to maintain health and
combating diseases.
• Research helps us create new knowledge
and develop proper tools for the use of
existing knowledge.
• Not only does it enable health care providers
to diagnose and treat diseases, research also
provides evidence for policies and decisions
on health and development.

27. NHRC Priority Research Areas:

28. Research related to following aspects in
the priority areas wherever applicable:
• Magnitude of the problem, prevalence,
incidence, risk factors: immune status, race and
genetics
• Burden of Diseases
• Etiology: agents risk factors and environmental
factors, understanding pathogens
• Course: morbidity, disability, mortality, survival

29. Priority…
• Surveillance and early diagnosis
• Management of control program: diagnosis,
outbreak and carrier management,
transmission methods, case management and
treatment, vector, pathogenesis, resistance to
drugs
• Socioeconomic and cultural factors
• Health promotion and education, behavior
change and rehabilitation

30. Some of the Research Completed by NHRC
• Prevalence of non-communicable disease
in Nepal: Hospital based study
• Non-communicable risk factors: STEPS
survey Nepal
• Epidemiological study on injury and
violence in Nepal
• Others…

31. In Summary:
• Medical research find out health statistics,
mortality and morbidity which is basis for
national and local planning.
• Evidence based practice: heart of Medicine
• New inventions: Diagnostic tools and drugs
• Trial therapies for Treatments
• Evaluate the effectiveness of Programme
• Requirements for Under graduate, Graduate
and post-graduate degree

32. In Summary…
• Community diagnosis
• Control of epidemics
• Prevention and control of diseases
• Evaluation of curative and preventive
measures
• Study of natural history of diseases
• Planning & Implementation of Health
Services
Dr. RS Mehta, MSND, BPKIHS 32

33. “The beautiful thing about learning
is that nobody can take it away
from you.”
--BB King
Thank-You
33Dr. R S Mehta, MSND, BPKIHS