¿Quién financia la investigación médica en Chile? / Who finances medical research in Chile?

RESUMO

To identify those institutions granting medical research in Chile, every issue of Revista Médica de Chile published between 1987 and 1994 was reviewed, under the assumption that a vast majority (over 70 percent) of papers released by chilean authors in topics of internal medicine and related subspecilties would have been submitted for publication in this journal. This assumption was based in the solid prestige of Revista Médica de Chile among chilean physicians and investigators it is one of the oldest medical journals in the world (founded in 1872) and its inclusion in the most important international indexes (e.g. Index Medicus, Current Contents) qualifies it in mainstream literature. Paper classified as Original articles, Clinical experiences, Review articles, Public Health, Case reports, Clinical Laboratory, Special Articles and Medical Education were screened for acknowledgement of financial support beyond the resources needed for routine clinical work. Among 1.528 manuscripts published, 344 were Original articles and 61.3 percent of them acknowledgement special financial support. 501 manuscripts were Clinical experiences and 21.5 percent of them received special financial support; similar proportions were detected in Review articles and Public Health topics. The institution ranked as providing support most often was FONDECYT, a governmental fund that assigns resources to reseach in all areas of science and technology though a peer-reviewed nationwide annual contest. FONDECYT was identified as provider of financial support to 45.2 percent of the Original articles and Clinical experiences; chilean universities were mentioned by 33.6 percent and other entities (including pharmaceutical companies, other national and foreign organizations) by 23.1 percent. The Universituy of Chile was the main Chilean university mentioned in the acknowledgements. The proportion of papers receiving special financial support was lower in Rev Méd Chile than in 3 leading journals from developed countries (70 percent of articles published in Ann Int Med, 74 percent in Lancet and 78 percent in New Engl J Med) but this proportion has been steadly increasing since 1987. The increase has been due only to FONDECYT and it would be unreasonable to expect that this institution will maintain such an expansion indefinitely. Therefore, chilean investigators should attract more resources from the universities, the pharmaceutical companies and other non-governmental institutions