The Data Graveyard: Why India’s Private Hospitals Fail at Medical Research
In India, the medical landscape presents a glaring paradox: private hospitals treat roughly 60% of the nation’s patients, yet the vast majority of institutions without attached colleges produce fewer than 10 research papers a year on average. Meanwhile, public medical colleges and premier academic centres carry almost the entire burden of the nation's medical research output. A recent study published in the Journal of Medical Evidence (BMJ Group) has exposed this systemic failure. Conducted by Dr Samiran Nundy and Dr Paramanand Tiwari from Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, the study analysed research output from January 2021 to December 2025 across Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Their findings reveal a troubling reality: while India ranks 4th globally in the sheer volume of medical publications, it drops to 9th in citation impact. The country treats millions, but it is failing to learn from them. Here is a deep dive into what India is missing, why it matters, and how to fix it.
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