Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak on radiology research: An Italian survey

Abstract

\n Purpose\n To understand how COVID-19 pandemic has changed radiology research in Italy.\n \n Methods\n A questionnaire (n\u202f=\u202f19 questions) was sent to all members of the Italian Society of Radiology two months after the first Italian national lockdown was lifted.\n \n Results\n A total of 327 Italian radiologists took part in the survey (mean age: 49\u202f±\u202f12\u202fyears). After national lockdown, the working-flow came back to normal in the vast majority of cases (285/327, 87.2%). Participants reported that a total of 462 radiological trials were recruiting patients at their institutions prior to COVID-19 outbreak, of which 332 (71.9%) were stopped during the emergency. On the other hand, 252 radiological trials have been started during the pandemic, of which 156 were non-COVID-19 trials (61.9%) and 96 were focused on COVID-19 patients (38.2%). The majority of radiologists surveyed (61.5%) do not conduct research. Of the radiologists who carried on research activities, participants reported a significant increase of the number of hours per week spent for research purposes during national lockdown (mean 4.5\u202f±\u202f8.9\u202fh during lockdown vs. 3.3\u202f±\u202f6.8\u202fh before lockdown; p\u202f=\u202f.046), followed by a significant drop after the lockdown was lifted (3.2\u202f±\u202f6.5\u202fh per week, p\u202f=\u202f.035). During national lockdown, 15.6% of participants started new review articles and completed old papers, 14.1% completed old works, and 8.9% started new review articles. Ninety-six surveyed radiologists (29.3%) declared to have submitted at least one article during COVID-19 emergency.\n \n Conclusion\n This study shows the need to support radiology research in challenging scenarios like COVID-19 emergency.\n