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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 30
| Issue : 3 | Page : 159 |
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Rethinking research
VA Bastin
Editor, KJO, Nethra Eye Care Centre, Main Road, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur, Kerala, India
| Date of Web Publication | 17-Dec-2018 |
Correspondence Address:
V A Bastin
Editor, KJO, Nethra Eye Care Centre, Main Road, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur, Kerala
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/kjo.kjo_92_18
How to cite this article:
Bastin V A. Rethinking research. Kerala J Ophthalmol 2018;30:159 |
Dear Friends,
As clinicians, most of us look at the concept of research as insurmountable. Are research and medical practice mutually exclusive? Hitherto, there has a clear demarcation between the two.
Let me elaborate. Clinical research aims to produce knowledge to be used in future patients and therefore generalizes its subjects, subordinating their individuality to the interests of a community. In medical practice, on the other hand, we have a patient-oriented approach, catering to unique needs of each patient. As a result, our role as researchers could create ethical conflict. Moreover, research is time-consuming, and there are few of us who would like to take time away from patient care.
Why then, should we consider integration of research into our practice? We should think about greater benefits for the patient based on protocol-based new interventions, for one.
An example of this marriage between research and practice would be the program – Karnataka Internet-assisted Diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity where nonmedicos traveling to remote inaccessible areas are trained to image ROP and relay it to the ophthalmologist using telemedicine. This was a pragmatic study which was included into routine clinical practice, benefiting a huge number of patients in the periphery.
In practice, documenting individual patient responses to drugs and treatment, noting heterogeneity of responses to the same management protocol, analyzing unexpected benefits and adverse effects of treatment, meticulous observation of individual patients and above all, using electronic medical recording, and data for retrospective and hopefully prospective studies can help inculcate research into routine practice. In this age of evidence-based medicine, a patient-centered approach can, as said before, benefit both the individual and community in the future.
We, in KJO, strongly believe scientific ideas and research are for public good and publishing and sharing your work would be of immense benefit to others practicing in the field. Our goal as editors is to effectively communicate good, original work as quickly and as broadly as possible. So requesting all our members including postgraduate students to share your original research work with us. Each article will be carefully considered without bias for publication.
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