Laberge Suzanne, Albert Mathieu, Hodges Brian D
Department of Kinesiology (Laberge), Université de Montréal, CP 6128, succ. Centre-ville, Montréal QC H3C 3J7.
CMAJ. 2009 Nov 24;181(11):797-803. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.090661. Epub 2009 Nov 9.
Interdisciplinary health research is a priority of many funding agencies. We surveyed clinician and biomedical scientists about their views on the value and funding of interdisciplinary health research.
We conducted semistructured interviews with 31 biomedical and 30 clinician scientists. The scientists were selected from the 2000-2006 membership lists of peer-review committees of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. We investigated respondents' perspectives on the assumption that collaboration across disciplines adds value to health research. We also investigated their perspectives on funding agencies' growing support of interdisciplinary research.
The 61 respondents expressed a wide variety of perspectives on the value of interdisciplinary health research, ranging from full agreement (22) to complete disagreement (11) that it adds value; many presented qualified viewpoints (28). More than one-quarter viewed funding agencies' growing support of interdisciplinary research as appropriate. Most (44) felt that the level of support was unwarranted. Arguments included the belief that current support leads to the creation of artificial teams and that a top-down process of imposing interdisciplinary structures on teams constrains scientists' freedom. On both issues we found contrasting trends between the clinician and the biomedical scientists.
Despite having some positive views about the value of interdisciplinary research, scientists, especially biomedical scientists, expressed reservations about the growing support of interdisciplinary research.
跨学科健康研究是许多资助机构的优先事项。我们就跨学科健康研究的价值和资金问题，对临床医生和生物医学科学家的观点进行了调查。
我们对31位生物医学科学家和30位临床医生进行了半结构化访谈。这些科学家是从加拿大卫生研究院同行评审委员会2000 - 2006年的成员名单中挑选出来的。我们调查了受访者对于跨学科合作能为健康研究增添价值这一假设的看法。我们还调查了他们对于资助机构对跨学科研究日益增加的支持的看法。
61位受访者对跨学科健康研究的价值表达了各种各样的观点，从完全认同（22人）到完全反对（11人）其具有价值；许多人提出了有保留的观点（28人）。超过四分之一的人认为资助机构对跨学科研究日益增加的支持是恰当的。大多数人（44人）觉得这种支持程度不合理。理由包括认为当前的支持导致组建了人为的团队，以及自上而下地将跨学科结构强加于团队的过程限制了科学家的自由。在这两个问题上，我们发现临床医生和生物医学科学家之间存在相反的趋势。
尽管科学家们对跨学科研究的价值有一些积极看法，但他们，尤其是生物医学科学家，对跨学科研究日益增加的支持表示保留意见。
