Scholarly Activity Support Systems in Internal Medicine Residency Programs: A National Representative Survey in Japan

Objective To describe the clinical research support systems in Japanese board certification programs of internal medicine and to assess the relationship between these support systems and the scholarly activities of residents. Methods In 2018, a 26-item web questionnaire was mailed to 542 points of contact of hospitals listed as certified residency programs of internal medicine in order to obtain information about the presence of a research support system and scholarly activity from 2016. We used hospital characteristic data from the Japanese Diagnostic Procedure Combination database, a national inpatient database, and the annual report of the Japanese Society of Internal Medicine. Results A total of 228 hospitals (42%) responded to the survey. There were regular research lectures in 129 hospitals (57%), protected time (time to perform research during working hours) in 53 hospitals (23%), research consultations in 175 hospitals (77%), regular journal clubs in 213 hospitals (77%), regular research conferences in 151 hospitals (66%), data warehouses in 139 hospitals (61%), and financial research support from the hospital budget in 140 hospitals (61%). A multivariate analysis showed that none of the research support systems were related to the number of conference presentations. In contrast, protected time [odds ratio (OR) 3.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.43-9.39] and regular research conferences (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.14-4.23) were related to the presence of clinical research presentations in scientific conferences hosted by residents. Conclusion Protected time and regular research conferences were related to the scholarly activity of residents in Japanese teaching hospitals.