Low awareness of clinical research in India amongst final year medical students and physicians: Need for increased emphasis on clinical research in medical curriculum

Abstract

Background: There is an increasing trend to undertake clinical trials in India, but its awareness among the health care professional remain far from satisfactory. Aim: To assess the level of knowledge regarding clinical research training amongst a group of Indian medical students and postdoctoral physicians who had already completed training in subject of pharmacology. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive questionnaire based study was conducted among university undergraduate medical students and postdoctoral physicians. Questionnaire was administered to 155 final year medical students and 33 postdoctoral physicians. Results: Out of 155 undergraduate students, for the statement regarding the concept of clinical trials, around 20.2% fell in the good category, 61.4% in the average category and 18.4% in the poor category. Regarding the statement about International Conference of Harmonization (ICH), 58.8% were poor responders, 28.7% were average, and 12.5% were good. The statements regarding the participation in the clinical research study showed that a majority was in the poor response category (89.2%) as compared to 9.8% in the good category. Conclusion: Boom in clinical research opens a door for job opportunities and advanced research. Teaching good clinical practice (GCP) guidelines at the most formative years shall go a long way in development of ethical and healthy learning environment for clinical research in the country.