Response to” The Importance of Support Staff to Research Capacity”

We appreciate the ongoing research studies of the role of science in family medicine. Recently, Weidner and colleagues1 surveyed department chairs to assess factors associated with departments classified as having minimum, moderate, and high capacity for research. While we agree with the model used to assess domains related to research capacity, there was a major gap in measuring this concept. A faculty member is rarely a successful, funded investigator without the support of a highly trained and dedicated support staff. The key role of research assistants, biostatisticians, grants administrators, and business managers was not addressed in this study. These staff members are the infrastructure that enables faculty to efficiently submit grants, manage grants, field studies, and disseminate research findings. Notably, Weidner et al indicated that minimal capacity departments were less likely to use secondary data. While we agree that using secondary data is an effective means of conducting research with less cost, the ability to correctly analyze complex secondary data from medical records or national survey data with complex sampling weights, depends on having a highly skilled biostatistician.

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