Chapter 139: True Scientific Research

"Teacher, I just heard something." Ji Xiang repeated what Wu Zong had said word for word.

"Teacher, do you think this is true?"

"It is." The System NPC nodded, confirming what Wu Zong had just said.

Ji Xiang pondered; he had many thoughts, but whether reasonable or not, if it existed, it was necessarily reasonable.

"Let's put it this way: 99.99% of scientific research in the medical circle right now has no meaning." The System NPC gave Ji Xiang a number that made him despair, very bluntly.

"But..."

"Promotions and professional titles all require these things; it's human nature." The System NPC smiled. "From my perspective, there is only one meaningful piece of scientific research in the entire country."

"!!!" Ji Xiang focused his attention.

This was a treasure.

"The Oilfield Company, you know it, right?" the System NPC asked.

"I know, PetroChina," Ji Xiang said.

"The Youdian Tangniaobing Yanjiu is the only project in the domestic medical system that leads the entire world." (Note)

Ji Xiang had originally thought this project would appear at Peking Union Medical College Hospital or Huaxi, but he never expected it to have fallen to the Oilfield Hospital.

The local medical standard seemed quite average; at the very least, it could not be called leading.

For a place like this to guarantee the most basic medical care was already quite good, let alone advanced scientific research? Ji Xiang felt it was impossible.

"It's like this." The System NPC explained to Ji Xiang, "In 1985, Pan Zhuren of the Internal Medicine Department at Zhongri Youhao Yiyuan mentioned something during a meeting, wanting to conduct scientific research. But there was no money at the time; the state had no money, and the hospital was even poorer."

"By a stroke of luck, Hu Yuanzhang of the Youdian Zong Yiyuan heard about this and took it on."

"A stroke of luck... is that Luck?" Ji Xiang asked.

"It wasn't just as simple as Luck, listen to me." The System NPC said, "After all, it was an Oilfield Hospital, and at the time it was affiliated with the Oilfield Company. They filed a research report, and the Oilfield Company allocated 100,000."

"Such a small amount of money."

"Money is a small matter, and it wasn't a small amount in that era." The System NPC's smile was bright as he spoke of this matter. "At the time, they found 110,660 samples among the oilfield employees."

"Teacher, were they Patients?"

"No, they were people; to be precise, they were employees of the Oilfield Company at the time." The System NPC said, "There were all age groups. At the time, they did glucose tolerance screenings, and there were only 577 people with impaired glucose tolerance. This group of people was in an abnormal glucose metabolism state transitioning from normal blood sugar to diabetes."

"These IGT individuals were randomly divided into a control group and an intervention group. Within the intervention group, they were further divided into a diet intervention group, an exercise intervention group, and a diet plus exercise intervention group."

"In short, the first study was conducted at that time. As for how significant it is, we will talk about it in detail when you rotate to the Internal Medicine Department."

Ji Xiang nodded.

"Until 1992, the six-year lifestyle intervention ended."

"In 2006, a 20-year follow-up was done; in 2009, a 23-year follow-up; in 2016, a 30-year follow-up."

"They collected subsequent data for further analysis to evaluate the impact of lifestyle intervention on diabetes incidence, cardiovascular disease events, composite microvascular complications, cerebrovascular disease death, all-cause mortality, and life expectancy."

"Teacher, I have a question." Ji Xiang raised his hand.

"Speak."

"With a sample of only five hundred or so people, it doesn't seem to be world-class."

"Hehe, didn't I say it? It was a sample of 110,660 people." The System NPC said with a smile.

"Uh..." Ji Xiang was stunned.

A sample of 110,000 people, thirty years later—how does this sound like a fantasy novel?

This workload was simply too large.

Ji Xiang had never done scientific research; there were some things he could only guess at.

"It was also a stroke of luck, truly a stroke of luck." The System NPC sighed.

He said "a stroke of luck" twice in a row, his tone growing heavier.

"I am going to say some long-winded things you might not want to hear."

"Teacher, I am willing to hear everything you say." Ji Xiang said with a smile, "How about we go to the locker room, and you can tell me while you smoke?"

The System NPC hesitated for a moment. "No."

"The first factor for success was that the sample population at the time were workers. The working class has strong discipline; this factor is something most people have ignored. When the research was done back then, this point wasn't even considered; it was indeed a bit of good luck."

"Teacher, why do you say discipline?"

"During the 30-year follow-up, the young and middle-aged people from back then had all retired, and the researchers doing the follow-up only wanted to make a phone call to ask who could come back for a check-up."

"There are two more points here. First, the oilfield employees were all registered; the 1980s were not like today. If it were any other place, I reckon many people would have already lost contact."

Ji Xiang nodded in agreement.

"After calling to ask, 95% of them actually flew back from all over the country to have a physical examination. If it were any other place, this would be impossible to do."

"!!!"

Ji Xiang was astonished.

Just as the System NPC said, time is long enough that no matter how large the original sample size is, it is hard to withstand the years; it would fall apart and be impossible to collect.

Yet for a 30-year follow-up, 95% of people actually flew back—this alone made Ji Xiang gape in awe.

"Furthermore, the research methods used by the rest of the world at the very beginning had already been rejected."

"..."

Was it that rash? This was the first time Ji Xiang had heard of such a thing.

"In the 1960s and 70s, individual sample research was popular worldwide, while the 1985 Youdian Tangniaobing Yanjiu was a group sample study; it was mocked for many years at the start."

"And then?" Ji Xiang pressed.

"Later, in the 1990s, group sample research occupied the mainstream academic consensus. The DPS Yanjiu started by Finland in 1993 and the DPP Yanjiu started by the United States in 1999 are both classifications of the Youdian Tangniaobing Yanjiu."

"This is a scientific research project; I'll put it simply, you don't need to touch it for now." The System NPC said, "In short, regarding diabetes research, our country leads the world through the Youdian Tangniaobing Yanjiu."

"In my view, this research could produce at least 100 top-tier international papers."

"Are there any publications?" Ji Xiang asked.

"Of course, the diabetes sub-journal of The Lancet was published a long time ago," the System NPC smiled. "What, are you interested in academics?"

Ji Xiang nodded.

"You can easily publish the kind of academic papers that just fool people at your current level, but if you want something with real value, it requires long-term, large-scale samples and arduous, painstaking work," the System NPC said meaningfully.

"30 years?"

"At least."

Ji Xiang scratched his head.

30 years—he would be nearly retired by then; for scientific research to truly produce results, it was a bit too slow.

"Take it slow; that is the fastest way."

……

……

Note: This was said by Academician Wang Chen when he came to guide the work and hold a symposium this year. Emmm, Academician Wang is the same principal that Wu Laoshi often calls in *Healer Without Sleep*.

The passage about being the only world-leading one in the country is Academician Wang's original words.

(End of this chapter)