Table 1 Benefits to community clinicians associated with their participation in clinical research
From: Bridging the gap between basic science and clinical practice: a role for community clinicians
Type of Benefit | How Clinicians Benefit |
|---|---|
Benefits to the profession of clinical medicine and associated specialty organizations | • Contributes to the mission of medicine and improves the scientific basis for the practice of medicine. |
|  | • Facilitates clinicians' gaining support from professional organizations and NIH. |
|  | • Allows clinicians to contribute to the development of new knowledge; research participation provides a mechanism for this to take place. |
|  | • Support clinicians to learn and implement what's best for their patients. |
Benefits to clinicians in their role as clinicians | • Allows clinicians to remain current with new innovations. |
|  | • Affords intellectual stimulation, an often-welcomed change from demands of clinical practice. |
|  | • Promotes affiliation with desirable colleagues and belonging to a community with other professionals. |
|  | • Provides a second income stream, which diversifies financial risk. |
|  | • Generates prestige of being engaged in research and professional recognition (e.g., authorship, wall certificates, or CME credits). |
|  | • Offers free medications and/or diagnostic and therapeutic interventions to participants of some studies. |
Benefits to clinicians in their role as managers of their practice settings | • With patients wanting more and payors giving less, clinicians have much to gain from evidence-based studies that delineate care known to improve outcomes. |
|  | • Many patients seek out clinicians who are at the cutting edge of research and thus provide access to the best diagnostic and treatment options, some of which may otherwise be unavailable. |
|  | • Participation in clinical research serves as a marketing tool for clinicians to signal their clinics as outstanding. |
Benefits to clinicians in their interactions with managed care | • Clinician participation in research builds infrastructure that can facilitate engagement with managed care. |
|  | • Information systems improve with the data gathering and transfer associated with research. |
Benefits to clinicians in their efforts to improve the health of community populations | • Participation by a diverse set of clinicians and their patients is most likely to illuminate relationships between care and outcomes that apply to most patients seen in community practice. |