Page 15 - Recommendations-for-biostatisticians-in-managing-and-conducting-medical-research-consultations

3.2 Second question: How the study will add value

and who will benefit from it?

This question may occasionally have been already answered by the first question posed to
the research client. However, if it has not already been answered by the first question, then
the biostatistician will still need to ask this question again. This question shall pinpoint to
the source of motivation that drives a researcher to pursue research in a particular topic
area. It is widely noted that a universal definition of “medical research” will usually serve
two main purposes: namely (i) to improve survival and also (ii) to improve quality of life of
the research subject(s). In other words, the research output obtained from medical
research will be expected to serve either one or both of the two main purposes. Hence, the
research client will have to justify the scientific merit of a research proposal by
rationalizing how those potential research findings obtained from medical research would
be able to benefit researchers, policymakers, patients and/or the public at large.

A research client will usually have no problems justifying all the potential benefits of a
research proposal if he/she is also the subject matter expert in the field. However, the
client may not always have a thorough understanding of all the potential benefits of a
research proposal. For example, a postgraduate student who is required to complete a
research project for the fulfilment of one the requirements for his/her Master’s or
Doctorate’s degree program may not have a clear idea of how his/her proposed research
work can actually deliver potential benefits to the researchers, policy-makers, patients
and/or the public at large. It will then be likely for him/her to formulate irrelevant
research question(s) at the research proposal stage because he/she might not be well
versed in the research area. At first glance, the biostatistician might also not be able to
figure out the potential benefits of a proposed research since they are also not the subject
matter experts in the medical field.

Therefore, if the research client is not able to clearly describe all the potential benefits
of a proposed research work; then it is likely for the proposed research area to have little
or no contribution towards the medical field. This is why it is strongly recommended for
the research client to first confer with his/her supervisor(s) or superior(s) or
subject matter expert(s) in order to refine a proposed research work to ensure that
it has strong scientific merit (in order to ensure that there is a strong justification to
conduct research in this proposed area). This is where the significance of the second
question: “How the study will add value and who will benefit from it?” has arisen from,
since the answer to the second question shall provide a useful guide to a biostatistician in
deciding whether he/she can proceed directly to a biostatistical consultation, or it might be
worthwhile to refine the proposed research question further before proceeding to a
biostatistical consultation.