Changes in Academic Productivity: Implications for Clinical Laboratory Research and Development

Abstract

A recent report from the Council of Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association indicated that the introduction of managed healthcare had a substantially negative influence on the academic productivity of clinical faculty in academic health centers (1). Consistent with this finding is the observed change in the number of scientific abstracts presented during the Annual Meeting of the AACC (2). As can be seen, over the last 4 years there has been a substantial 30% decrease in the number of abstracts received and accepted from all sources, including academia and industry (Fig. 1⇓ , A and B). This decline does not correlate to a change in the abstract rejection rate, which has remained relatively constant (∼20%) since 1992 (Fig. 1C⇓ ). Figure 1. Indicators of AACC academic productivity from 1992 through 1999. Comparison of abstract volume ( A and B ) and abstract acceptance rate ( C ) for the AACC annual meetings with student participation ( D ), COMACC-approved clinical chemistry training programs …