Increase in the number of researchers is an indicator of growth in innovation and development investment. The program "Peru Bicentennial 2021" defines researchers as professionals with doctorate degree and the objective being to increase its number to 3 300 for that year. The present study aimed to identify if doctors in medical and health sciences areas work in research-related activities, as well as determine if their doctoral thesis was published as scientific articles. We found that only one in every four doctors appear qualified as a researcher in the “Registry of researchers of the national system of science, technology and technological innovation of Peru” or have had their scientific papers published. Nearly 16% of the doctoral theses were published as scientific papers, and was more common in doctors from the Registry of Science and Technology Researchers or by doctors with previous publications. We concluded that only one in every four doctors are a qualified researcher or has published scientific papers, and nearly two in every ten have had their theses published.