Japan's contribution to nuclear medical research

Abstract

We investigated the degree of Japan's contribution to the nuclear medical research in the last decade. Articles published in 1991-2000 in highly reputed nuclear medical journals were accessed through the MEDLINE database. The number of articles having affiliation with a Japanese institution was counted along with publication year. In addition, shares of top-ranking countries were determined along with their trends over time. Of the total number of articles (7,788), Japan's share of articles in selected nuclear medical journals was 11.4% (889 articles) and ranked 2nd in the world after the USA (2,645 articles). The recent increase in the share was statistically significant for Japan (p = 0.02, test for trend). Japan's share in nuclear medical research output is much higher than that in other biomedical fields.

Japan's contribution to clinical research in gastroenterology and hepatology

“…Japan's share of articles in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology (10.6% of the total; third in the world) was higher than that in general medicine (0.7%; fourteenth), 2,3 infectious diseases (3.4%; sixth), 4 rheumatology (5.7%; fourth), 5 ophthalmology (6.5%; third), 6 anesthesiology (7.3%; fourth), 7 epidemiology (1.1%; fourteenth) 8 and basic science journals (3.1%; fourth), 2,3 and the share was similar to that in nuclear medicine (11.4%; second) 9 and orthopedics (8.3%; third). 10 It is likely that the highest mortality in the world for gastric cancer in Japan 13 and the development of advanced endoscopy techniques were instrumental in boosting research productivity in this field by Japanese researchers.…”

“…There is no doubt that the United States leads all other countries in scientific research, [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]12,14 which is also the case for gastroenterology and hepatology. Huge research funds and an abundance of trained researchers Japan's share of articles in RCTs (3.9%) was rather small compared with the share of all articles (10.6%).…”

Radiological research activity 1998–2007: relationship to gross domestic product, health expenditure and public expenditure on education

“…Studies regarding the relationship between funding [2] or different macroeconomic variables and research activity have been published for various other medical disciplines and health topics in the past [7–19]. In radiology, research activity has been benchmarked according to population size [20, 21], GDP [20] and geographic region [20, 21, 24]. …”

Young Japanese Generalist Physicians, Be Academic! A Message from the New Editor-in-Chief of General Medicine

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Fifteen years ago, along with the introduction of evidence-based medicine into Japanese medicine from the western hemisphere, this journal was created with a missionary role for publishing clinically useful original articles, special articles, reviews, and case reports for newly developing generalist physicians throughout Japan. Generalist physicians in Japan, like our counterparts in western countries, have had leading roles for evidence-based clinical practice in hospitals and clinics, "best evidence" medical education for residents and medical students, and scientific contributions by publishing practice-changing papers based on clinical epidemiology.…”