Background: Analysis of biomedical publications of a country is used to monitor research trends which leads to a better formulation of health policy planning and management.
Aim: We sought to describe the Lebanese medical publications productivity over a 20 years period from 1985 to 2004.
Methods: Medline's database was consulted and the query contained the name of the country, the medical universities, the main teaching hospitals, and cities, both in French and in English. The articles with a Lebanese health affiliation were included and the articles of dentistry, veterinary, nursing and pharmacy were excluded.
Results: We counted 1964 medical articles over a two-decade period. The productivity was 2,9 articles/100000 capita/year and 9,2 articles/billion US dollars GDP/year. The growth rate of publication drew a decline passing from 202% (1990-1994) to 55,3% (2000- 2004). The four most productive specialties (Anesthesiology, Internal medicine, Gynecology, Pediatrics) published 611 articles (31,1%). The governorate of Beirut, the American University of Beirut and its teaching hospital published the most with respectively 1926 (98%), 568 (28,9%), and 601 articles (30,6%).
Conclusion: The Lebanese medical productivity was weak and unstable mainly due to the lack of financial resources and the instability of the region. Increasing research funding, improving the physicians' research methodology and writing capacities are likely needed to improve the Lebanese medical output.