University-Affiliated Hospitals: Clinical Practice, Education, or Research—Which Takes Precedence?

Question:
How do physicians in Chinese university-affiliated hospitals perceive the balance among clinical, teaching, and research responsibilities, and how does the current performance evaluation system impact their professional development?

Design, Setting, and Participants:
This cross-sectional survey study was conducted from May to December 2024 across 16 university-affiliated tertiary hospitals in 7 Chinese provinces. A nationally representative sample of 1,423 physicians completed validated questionnaires assessing their perceptions of clinical, teaching, and research tasks, as well as evaluations of the professional system.

Main outcomes:
Primary outcomes included physicians’ role prioritization, pressures associated with clinical workload, marginalization of teaching, and alienation of research due to quantitative evaluation metrics.

The shared data include the original questionnaire and the raw data collected from it.