Scientific Research and Development presents the opportunity to push forward scientific knowledge by applying your technical skills and subject knowledge to a specific problem. “Research” and “Development” each have a different focus:

Scientific research and development takes place in most large, research-intensive universities, in government or charity funded research centres and in industry. Where you want to work will govern your next step, as the entry requirements and application processes for each differ. 

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Moreover, some studies may be experimental. After the researcher intervenes, the researcher waits for the result, observes and obtains data. Experimental studies are, more often, in the form of clinical trials or laboratory animal trials.

Analytical observational research can be classified as cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies.

Interventional Research (Experimental Studies): in this type of research, there is a control group aimed to be tested. The researcher decides upon which effect the participant will be exposed to in this study. Post-intervention, the researcher waits for the result, observes and obtains the data. Interventional studies are divided into two: quasi-experimental and clinical research.

Quasi-Experimental Research: they are conducted in cases in which a quick result is requested and the participants or research areas cannot be randomised, e.g. giving hand-wash training and comparing the frequency of nosocomial infections before and after hand wash.

Clinical Research: they are prospective studies carried out with a control group for the purpose of comparing the effect and value of an intervention in a clinical case. Clinical study and research have the same meaning. Drugs, invasive interventions, medical devices and operations, diets, physical therapy and diagnostic tools are relevant in this context.

Cross-Sectional Studies: in cross- sectional studies, the patients or events are examined at a particular point in time. Prevalence studies (the percentage of a population having a disease at a certain time) are the ones in which the diagnosis and disease mechanism are detected and the cause and effect relationship is examined at the same level.

Cross-sectional studies are advantageous since they can be concluded relatively quickly. It may be difficult to obtain a reliable result from such studies for rare diseases.

Cross-sectional studies are characterised by timing. In such studies, the exposure and result are simultaneously evaluated. While cross-sectional studies are restrictedly used in studies involving anaesthesia (since the process of exposure is limited), they can be used in studies conducted in intensive care units.

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Case-Control Studies: these studies are retrospective cohort studies. They examine the cause and effect relationship from the effect to the cause. The detection or determination of data depends on the information recorded in the past. The researcher has no control over the data.

Cohort Studies (Prospective, Retrospective and Ambidirectional): A cohort is a group formed by patients having common characteristics. A cohort study is the one in which a group of patients is followed-up in time, e.g. comparison of academic performances of children (who underwent anaesthesia in their neonatal period) in their adolescence.

The participants are controlled with regard to the disease under investigation. Patients are excluded from the study. Healthy participants are evaluated with regard to the exposure to the effect. Then, the group (cohort) is followed-up for a sufficient period of time with respect to the occurrence of disease, and the progress of disease is studied. The risk of the healthy participants getting sick is considered an incident. In cohort studies, the risk of disease between the groups exposed and not exposed to the effect is calculated and rated. This rate is called relative risk. Relative risk indicates the strength of exposure to the effect on the disease.

Cohort research may be observational and experimental. The follow-up of patients prospectively is called a prospective cohort study. The results are obtained after the research starts. The researcher’s following-up of cohort subjects from a certain point towards the past is called a retrospective cohort study. Prospective cohort studies are more valuable than retrospective cohort studies: this is because in the former, the researcher observes and records the data. The researcher plans the study before the research and determines what data will be used. On the other hand, in retrospective studies, the research is made on recorded data: no new data can be added.