Family Medicine Academic Workforce of Medical Schools in Taiwan: A Nationwide Survey

Shu-Han Chen,Tzeng-Ji Chen,Hsiao-Ting Chang,Ming-Nan Lin,Ming-Hwai Lin,Shinn-Jang Hwang

doi:10.3390/ijerph18137182

Abstract

Little is known about family medicine academic workforce in Taiwan, and basic data on this may aid healthcare decision-makers and contribute to the limited literature. We analyzed data from 13 medical schools in Taiwan collected by the Taiwan Association of Family Medicine from June to September 2019, regarding characteristics of medical schools, and total staff, gender, age, degree, working title (adjunct/full-time), academic level, and subspecialty of each current family medicine faculty member. Total 13 medical schools in Taiwan with an undergraduate education program in family medicine, but only nine of the 13 medical schools had family medicine departments, while four still do not. A total of 116 family medicine faculty members ranging from 33–69 years. Of these, most were male (n = 85, 73.3%), with a mean age of 43.3 years. Most faculty members possessed a master’s degree (n = 49, 42.2%), were academic lecturers (n = 49, 42.2%), were located in northern Taiwan (n = 79, 68.1%), and subspecialize in gerontology and geriatrics (n = 55, 47.4%) and hospice palliative care (n = 53, 45.7%). Additionally, most family medicine faculty in medical schools were adjunct faculty (n = 90, 77.6%), with only about one-fourth (n = 26, 22.4%) working full-time. Our study provides the most holistic census to date on academic family medicine faculty from all medical schools in Taiwan. The novel information can provide educational leaders, health policy managers, and decision-makers about the current developments of the family medicine departments in Taiwan’s medical schools. The basic data will help formulate an effective medical school family medicine education plan and improve the establishment and development of the family medicine faculty workforce to help medical education and national health policy development in the future in Taiwan.

Highlights

The family medicine workforce plays an increasingly important role as healthcare providers, leaders, managers, supervisors, and overall coordinators of personal and community healthcare, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic [1]
The results indicate that not all medical schools have a family medicine department
Nine medical schools with family medicine departments had a total of 99 medical faculty members, with an average of 11 medical faculty members in the family medicine department of each medical school

Summary

Introduction

The family medicine workforce plays an increasingly important role as healthcare providers, leaders, managers, supervisors, and overall coordinators of personal and community healthcare, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic [1]. Called general practice (GP) or family practice, is the medical specialty effector of primary healthcare (PHC). It has its own body of knowledge, with a functional unit consisting of the family and the individual, is based on clinical, epidemiological, and social methods, and integrates the biological, clinical, and behavioral sciences [2]. Since 2008, the World Health Organization has listed family medicine as the discipline most closely related to this type of healthcare and renewed the call for the development of high-quality primary care worldwide [3]. The American Council of Family Medicine defined family practice as a medical specialty that cares about the care of the total health of the individual.

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Conclusion