A comparison of basic and state-of-the-arts skills sets of biomedical science technical staff in Lagos public universities

Abstract

Background: Biomedical science has advanced drastically in developed countries in the last two decades with many health and economic benefits (1). In Nigeria, biomedical science has not thrived and the contribution from Nigerian universities, indeed African universities, to publications in global high impact journals is low (2). Objectives: The present work was based on the hypothesis that there is a lack of state-of-the-arts experimentation in Nigerian biomedical science experiments. Methods: An investigation was carried out on the professional skills of biomedical science technical staff of the two (federal and state) public universities in Lagos, Nigeria using a closed-ended questionnaire survey. The 17 respondents were asked about their training, the frequency of utilization of 99 skills, and their expertise. Results: The respondents were "untrained" more in state-of-the-arts skills (34% for electrophoresis, 28% for genomics, 22% for immunochemistry, and 34% for proteomics skills) than in general professional skills (5%), basic technical equipment skills (16%), or general biomedical science knowledge and skills (16%). Frequencies of responses were higher for general skills than for state-of-the-arts skills in the responses "utilizing frequently" (9.96%-31-61% versus 0.36%-4.2%), and "I'm expert " (9.55%- 19.88% versus 5.88%-8.48%). Conclusion-. It was projected that with continued investment in modern equipment and infrastructure, there will be increased drive for training and usage of modern bioscience research skills and multidisciplinary approaches and production of hightech scientific publications.