The latest "World's Top 2% Scientists" list was announced recently. The top 20 clinicians on the list include many familiar faces from last year.

This year, a total of 200,409 scientists from around the world were selected, including 67,189 from the United States, 5,352 from Japan, 2,903 from Korea and 1,372 from Taiwan.

This year, Taiwan has 1372 scientists on the list, slightly fewer than last year's 1479, but 324 in clinical medicine, up from 241 last year. The top ranking went to Guandu Hospital President Chen Liang-kong, followed by Professor Tseng Ching-hsiao of the Department of Metabolism at National Taiwan University, and in third place by former Vice President and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Chen Chien-jen. Chen was also ranked first in the world in the field of ageing medicine and is the highest ranked researcher in China in the world in a single specialty.

The top three clinicians in the individual rankings were Liang-Gong Chen, Qing-Hsiao Tseng and Jia-Hong Gao, who were ranked two, three and five respectively last year.

Last year's top 20 clinicians were mostly in the fields of liver disease and psychiatry. The 2021 ranking shows that China's research highlights are still in gastroenterology, hepatobiliary medicine, oncology and psychiatry, but ageing medicine is a global leader in the world.

Last year's top performer, Dr. Xue Boren, was not included in this ranking because he was classified as a biomedical researcher rather than a clinical medicine practitioner in the big data calculation.

Due to the differences in the scale of development of different specialties, the 2021 rankings also compare the international rankings for specific specialties. In addition, Chang Gung Honorary Dean Ching-Ching Wang is ranked 112th in the world in orthopaedics, Ching-Hsiao Tseng is ranked 115th in the world in metabolism, and Associate Dean Chiahong Kao of NTU is ranked 122nd in the world in gastroenterology, hepatobiliary medicine.

In response to the rankings, Chen expressed his gratitude and recognition, saying, "The rankings are greatly influenced by the algorithm, and it is important to keep working hard. As for being ranked number one in the world in the field of ageing medicine, Mr Chan said modestly, "The ranking under the big data classification is for reference only, perhaps some people doing ageing-related research are classified in other fields.

However, he stressed that "I am a native of Taiwan, so at least that means that local talents can compete with the rest of the world.

He has studied for a few months at Oxford University, but is most grateful for the support of the Retreat and the Taipei Veterans General Association in the development of geriatric medicine, and the recent addition of a multidisciplinary team from Yang Ming Jiaotong University has greatly enhanced the depth of research.

It is not easy for Taiwan's geriatric research to gain a foothold in the international arena in just over a decade, said Chen Lianggong, who hopes that the government and hospitals will pay more attention to geriatric medicine and that more young doctors will actively participate.

The rankings, calculated by experts at Stanford University using Scopus data on the impact of papers, are divided into a 'Lifetime Scientific Impact Ranking' and an 'Annual Scientific Impact Ranking', using six key indicators: total citations, Hirsch h-index, co-author-corrected Schreiber Hm-index, single author, single or first author, single/first or first author, and single/first or first author. The number of citations to articles by sole or first author, and sole/first or last author reflects the impact of the scholar's academic papers.