Clinical/epidemiologic research (CER) provides the basis of allopathic (mainstream) medicine by supplying thepredictive theories needed for medical practice and health policy making. These theories consist of laws toprobabilistically predict future clinical events based on current and previous measurements. CER studies consistof observations and experiments performed on patients, toghether with their theoretical interpretation. Theyare complemented by pathology, farmacokinetics and signal studies that are also performed in patients, butexplore the relations between measurables rather than clinical events. Purely theoretical studies include meta-analyses—that are statistical analyses of data pooled from multiple similar studies, and more recently populationpharmacokinetic and pharmacometric studies.The structure of the CER subsystems in developed countries is similar, and includes medical schools, teaching(and research) hospitals, epidemic surveillance government institutions, agencies such as the Food and DrugAdministration, and a segment of the industry that organises clinical research for the purpose of testing andcharacterisation of drugs, devices and diagnostic and therapeutic machinery.The performance of the CER subsystem is essential for the proper training of physicians and for the atractivityof the health system for professional elites.The CER subsystem, estimated by a variety of metrics, such as the proportion of employees, funds and numberof publications, represents about 6–11% from the overall research system in Romania, compared about 18–31%in the USA