ABSTRACT Background Academic departments related to regional health care in Japan play a crucial role in addressing healthcare disparities and workforce shortages. However, a comprehensive understanding of their structures, leadership, and activities is lacking. This study aimed to provide the first nationwide profile of academic departments related to regional healthcare (chiiki iryou) in Japanese medical schools. Methods A cross‐sectional study of 82 Japanese medical schools was conducted in 2024. Data on departments whose names included chiiki and their chairpersons were collected from official university websites and the National Physician Registration Database. To assess research output, a PubMed search was conducted for English‐language original articles published over a 2‐year period, where the chairperson was listed as the first, second, or last author. Results A total of 145 chairpersons from 168 eligible departments were included in the analysis. Most of the departments were at national universities (66.1%), were headed by endowed chairpersons (78.0%), who were predominantly male (94.5%). Analysis of chairperson characteristics revealed: (1) a predominance of Internal Medicine specialists (44.1%) and a limited proportion of certified General Medicine specialists (10.3%); (2) limited research output, with 36.6% having no PubMed‐indexed articles published during the study period; (3) a research focus primarily on clinical (59.9% of articles) and basic science (15.6% of articles), with few articles focusing on regional healthcare issues. Conclusions This nationwide study reveals a lack of diversity in chairperson characteristics, with a predominance of Internal Medicine specialists, limited international research output, and a possible mismatch between academic focus and regional healthcare needs.
Yasuhara et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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