Surveyed faculty affairs personnel at U.S. medical schools. Found that schools support over four times as many offices of faculty affairs as faculty development. Core functions of faculty affairs offices include administrative support for appointments, promotions, and tenure committees; faculty information and policies; faculty governance…

Identified medical schools or departments that used metric systems to quantify faculty activity and productivity in teaching and analyzed purposes and progress of those systems. Found that identifying a "rational" method for distributing funds was the most common reason articulated, and that schools varied in types of information tracked. Also…

Discusses the impact of a report on tenure and academic freedom at medical schools by the American Association of University Professors' special Subcommittee on Medical Schools. The report calls for adequate faculty consultation, consistency with general academic standards, and scrupulous observance of fairness and due process in regard to tenure…

Medical schools are recognizing that students require explicit discussion and analysis of ethical issues to assure high standards of professional practice. Recognition that the same approach is needed in biomedical research has begun to emerge. (Author/MLW)

A study of medical school origins of 19,381 faculty who earned degrees between 1980 and 1989 and held full-time positions in 1995 found research-oriented medical schools were major suppliers of faculty to other medical schools. Groups of three geographically proximate dyads and one complex cluster of 17 schools were identified. Factors affecting…

Medical school faculty members' broad understanding of their domains has atrophied as specialization has increased. Medical students need teachers who can integrate the specific areas of a subject with overarching themes. Expanding the values of the university to once again include the scholarship of integration and teaching would provide the best…

Examined the educational linkages between medical schools and public health agencies (PHAs) through a survey of all 134 allopathic medical schools in the United States. Of the 108 schools that responded, 63% reported placing some or all students at PHAs. Barriers to PHA placement included lack of faculty interest and lack of designated PHA contact…

Surveyed medical schools to gauge the current state of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) instruction by gathering details about the specific topics being taught and the objectives behind the instruction. Found that a wide variety of topics are being taught under the umbrella of CAM; for the most part, the instruction appears to be…

The nutrition education that most medical students receive is inadequate in quantity and quality, according to the National Research Council, which conducted a study of nutrition education in medical schools. Faculty members judged competencies that should be included in medical school curricula. (Author/MLW)

Third-year medical students used 12 descriptive items to evaluate the teaching skills of first-year residents, senior medical residents, preceptors, and attending physicians. Intraclass correlations showed that the students were able to judge their instructors reliably. (Author/MLW)

Three academicians (Paul J. Friedman, Gail H. Cassell, Richard A. Cooper) discuss tenure in academic medicine. Friedman explains and defends the current system; Cassell argues that negative perceptions about tenured faculty are not supported by research but that better evaluation criteria are needed; and Cooper proposes that the purposes for…

A projection based on 1984-85 data on University of California medical school faculty suggests that the impact of delaying faculty retirement by several years would be minimal. It is recommended that academic institutions pay more attention to maintaining faculty vitality and productivity regardless of age. (Author/MSE)

This study examined the occupational experiences of 703 deans of medicine during 5 decades to explore whether changes in their prior career paths could explain increasing turnover of deans. Results do not support the hypothesis that shorter tenures of deans in recent decades are related to previous professional experiences or increasing…

A survey of 994 medical school deans, basic science and clinical department heads, tenure committee members, and junior and senior faculty found the most frequently identified problems with medical education concerned evaluation of teaching. General and specific concerns were expressed by the 455 survey respondents. (Author/MSE)

Evaluation of the clinical competence of medical faculty in teaching hospitals is discussed. Different approaches to clinical assessment and theoretical and practical problems in assessing clinical faculty's performance are discussed. A University of Virginia medical school system for evaluation that combines objective and subjective assessment is…