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Development of the Research Forum: A program for biomedicine and health research strengthening in Qatar
Abstract
Background: Research strengthening and capacity development in academic health systems are important for advancing medicine, delivering best practices, improving patient outcomes, and reducing healthcare costs. The Research Forum is a biomedicine and health research strengthening program facilitated by the lead organization of the Academic Health System in Qatar. The event brought together researchers and health professionals together so they could present their research work on a particular health or research topic and network with a targeted local audience. Methods: This retrospective study evaluated the Research Forum program from August 2015 to July 2016. The Research Forum was designed as a pan-institutional multi-disciplinary program that would convene quarterly and bring health professionals and researchers together to present their work on a particular health and research topic. The primary outcome was peer-reviewed journal publications of the Research Forum events’ research presentations. The secondary outcomes were the number of attendees and speakers at the successive Research Forum events during the study period. Results: There were five Research Forum events in the first year: Neuroscience (August, 2015), Heart (October 2015), Infections (January 2016), Cancer (March 2016), and Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism (May 2016). A total of 722 health professionals and researchers attended the Research Forum events with 68 studies presented: 5 in Neuroscience, 10 in Heart, 12 in Infections, 18 in Cancer, and 23 in Diabetes/Metabolism. There were 13(19%) research presentations that were successfully published in peer-reviewed journals. The mean time between the study presentation and publication was 2.85 + 1.9 months (median 2; IQR 1.5, 4). None of the presenter and study characteristics variables considered for publication of presented studies was statistically significant. Conclusions: The Research Forum was a capacity building and research-strengthening program at an individual, institutional, and national level. The Research Forum was a unique program that brought together health professionals and researchers from various health institutions, universities, and organizations on a unifying health and research topic.
Background:
The size of a thyroid nodule and certain sonographic features, such as marked hypoechogenicity, microcalcifications, taller-than-wide shape, microlobulated, or irregular margins, indicate the greater malignancy risk. The frequency of the atypia of undetermined significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance (AUS/FLUS) category among cytology reports from thyroid fine-needle aspirations ranges from 0.8% to 28%, whereas the risk of malignancy of these nodules varies from 6% to 97%. This retrospective analysis investigated whether the preoperative ultrasonographic location of Bethesda 3 thyroid nodules is a predictive risk factor for differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC).
Methods:
A total of 387 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy for a nodule with AUS/FLUS cytology and diagnosed with a DTC at five tertiary referral centers between 2010 and 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The location of the thyroid nodule with AUS/FLUS cytology was categorized into two groups: one group was composed of the isthmus, upper lobe, middle lobe, and lower lobe, whereas the latter consisted of right lobe, left lobe, and isthmus.
Results:
DTC was diagnosed in 40.6% (n = 157) of the operated nodules. Multiple logistic regression analysis has revealed that hypoechogenicity of the nodule (odds ratio [OR] = 2.929, p < 0.001) was the only independent predictive factor for the malignancy of the nodules with AUS/FLUS, whereas the location of the nodule, age, and sex were not significantly independent risk factors. Multifocality and contralateral benign nodules were independent predictive factors for multicentricity (OR = 3.5, p = 0.002; OR = 5.5, p = 0.001, respectively).
Conclusion:
As the first study investigating the association between a Bethesda 3 nodule location and the risk of malignancy by evaluating postoperative cytology reports, the results showed that nodule location with AUS/FLUS on fine-needle aspiration biopsy was not a predictive risk factor for the diagnosis of DTC.
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