COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH ACTIVITY OF KAZAKHSTAN MEDICAL UNIVERSITIES

D.T. Azhibaeva-Kupenova, A. M. Duysenova

«South Clinical & Genetic Laboratory», South Kazakhstan Medical Academy, Shymkent, Republic of Kazakhstan

Objective: To conduct a comparative analysis of the research activity of medical universities in Kazakhstan.

Methods: The following universities were enrolled in the study: Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University (KazNMU), Medical University of Karaganda (MUK), Semey Medical University (SMU), Astana Medical University (AMU), West Kazakhstan Medical University named after M. Ospanov (WKMU), South Kazakhstan Medical Academy (SKMA), Kazakh Medical University of Continuing Education (KazMUCE), Yasawi University (International Kazakh-Turkish University named after Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, IKTU) and Kazakh-Russian Medical University (KRMU). Data from the Center for the Development of Education and Science of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan were used in the study. The rating assessment of medical universities was carried out on six indicators: the volume of research carried out; the number of publications in peer-reviewed international databases (Thomson Reuters, Scopus, Springer, Google Scholar); the number of references to the research publications within the last 5 years; the number of patents and copyrights; the level of commercialization of research products in medical universities in Kazakhstan; participation in international conferences. The analyzed period is between 2018 and 2020.

Results: By the end of 2020, KazNMU became the leader in the total value of all indicators by a small margin, followed by MUK and WKMU. The data obtained indicate that some of the medical universities, according to the total indicators’ value have a well-coordinated scientific environment, including KazNMU, MUK, WKMU, SMU, SKMA, AMU. Shaping of the conducive scientific environment in these universities is associated with a high level of the academic degrees of the staff, its large academic experience, and the volume of funding. The rest of the universities are young, with their scientific environment being still at its formative stage. These indicators contribute to the assessment of the results of research and innovative activities of medical universities, though they also have certain drawbacks.

Conclusion: Despite the fluctuation of different evaluation parameters in the medical universities over the years, there is a general increase in their main performance indicators per staff capita: the number of publications has increased by more than 5-6 times, while citations were raised by more than 50 times; and the number of patents has grown by an order of magnitude. The level of commercialization at most universities has not changed, with the exception of WKMU, KMU, SKMA, KazMUCE, SMU.

Keywords: Science, research environment, medicine, indicator, research activity, university.

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