[Who finances medical research in Chile?]

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%) of papers released by Chilean authors in topics of internal medicine and related subspecialties 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 the "mainstream literature". Papers classified as "Original Articles", "Clinical Experiences", "Review Articles", "Public Health", "Case Reports", "Clinical Laboratory", "Special Articles" and "Medical Education" were screened for acknowledgment of financial support beyond the resources needed for routine clinical work. Among 1,528 manuscripts published, 344 were "Original Articles" and 61.3% of them acknowledged special financial support. Five hundred and one manuscripts were "Clinical Experiences" and 21.5% 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 the "Fondo Nacional de Ciencias y Tecnología" (FONDECYT), a governmental fund that assigns resources to research in all areas of science and technology through a peer-reviewed nationwide annual contest. FONDECYT was identified as provider of financial support to 45.2% of the "Original Articles" and "Clinical Experiences"; Chilean universities were mentioned by 33.6% and other entities (including pharmaceutical companies, other national and foreign organizations) by 23.1%. The University of Chile was the main Chilean university mentioned in the acknowledgments. The proportion of papers receiving special financial support was lower in Revista Médica de Chile than in three leading journals from developed countries (70% of Articles published in Annals of Internal Medicine, 74% in Lancet and 78% in The New England Journal of Medicine) but this proportion has been steadily 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.