Anaesthesiology and research in South Africa: a proposal for a national collaborative anaesthesiology research group

Anaesthesiology research is currently uncoordinated on a national level in South Africa. Recently, the Academy of Science of South Africa published a report on Revitalising clinical research in South Africa, in which recommendations to increase clinical research in South Africa were made. In addition, the recent requirement for a research project as part of specialist training means that presently there is an incentive to increase clinical research in South Africa. Based on factors known to be associated with research productivity, a proposal is made for the establishment of a national, collaborative research group. To ensure the success of this venture, this collaborative group should address the six factors of research productivity identified by Kern: funding of the research; the quality of the investigators; the efficiency of the institution; the mix of the research projects based on novelty, incremental advancement and confirmatory studies; analytic accuracy and a passion for the research projects. A 'South African virtual perioperative research institute' is proposed to coordinate anaesthesiology research within South Africa. A research agenda, based on core research themes for South Africa, should be established. This national collaboration would ensure that all the necessary components for a productive research programme are addressed through a collaborative effort.