Faculty Promotion Research Articles

Chief Residency Selection in Internal Medicine: Who Is Left Out?

Little progress has been made in improving racial, gender, or intersectional diversity within academic internal medicine (IM). Chief Residency fulfills a unique opportunity to target diversity efforts; Chief Residents (CR) are integral in creating an inclusive environment and support system for IM trainees, and the position serves as a steppingstone for future leadership positions within academia. However, the CR selection process often lacks transparency and includes steps that are fraught with bias, thereby disadvantaging underrepresented minority groups from gaining important experience needed to climb the academic ladder. We describe a more standardized selection process that will improve recruitment and selection of more diverse CRs and ultimately improve the recruitment, retention, and promotion of more diverse faculty within academic internal medicine. Key recommendations include an open call for applications, the use of standardized and structured interviews, and the formation of a diverse selection committee to conduct a transparent selection process based on explicitly defined criteria.

Role of faculty characteristics in failing to fail in clinical clerkships.

In the context of competency-based medical education, poor student performance must be accurately documented to allow learners to improve and to protect the public. However, faculty may be reluctant to provide evaluations that could be perceived as negative, and clerkship directors report that some students pass who should have failed. Student perception of faculty may be considered in faculty promotion, teaching awards, and leadership positions. Therefore, faculty of lower academic rank may perceive themselves to be more vulnerable and, therefore, be less likely to document poor student performance. This study investigated faculty characteristics associated with low performance evaluations (LPEs). The authors analysed individual faculty evaluations of medical students who completed the third-year clerkships over 15 years using a generalised mixed regression model to assess the association of evaluator academic rank with likelihood of an LPE. Other available factors related to experience or academic vulnerability were incorporated including faculty age, race, ethnicity, and gender. The authors identified 50 120 evaluations by 585 faculty on 3447 students between January 2007 and April 2021. Faculty were more likely to give LPEs at the midpoint (4.9%), compared with the final (1.6%), evaluation (odds ratio [OR] = 4.004, 95% confidence interval [CI] [3.59, 4.53]; p < 0.001). The likelihood of LPE decreased significantly during the 15-year study period (OR = 0.94 [0.90, 0.97]; p < 0.01). Full professors were significantly more likely to give an LPE than assistant professors (OR = 1.62 [1.08, 2.43]; p = 0.02). Women were more likely to give LPEs than men (OR = 1.88 [1.37, 2.58]; p 0.01). Other faculty characteristics including race and experience were not associated with LPE. The number of LPEs decreased over time, and senior faculty were more likely to document poor medical student performance compared with assistant professors.

How to select a journal indexed as per NMC norms for promotion of medical faculty

Publication in indexed journal specified by National Medical commission (NMC) is mandatory now a day for promotion of medical faculty in Medical colleges and dental colleges. As research is mandatory for progression of medical field NMC has taken this step. Many of medical teachers are very good at research. They might have knowledge about submission of the research proposal to research committee and then to ethical committee. They might also know that ICMR has laid down the regulations for medical research. The actual story begins once the research study was completed. Now this time the completed work has to publish. For this one should have knowledge about how to select a journal that meets the criteria as per the guidelines issued by NMC.

Underrepresented faculty mentoring at a distance: program implementation and evaluation

ABSTRACT Underrepresented minority (URM) faculty hold about 10% of tenured positions, despite URM comprising more than 30% of the United States population; thus, disparities remain in the recruitment, development, retention and promotion of diverse faculty in large part because of a lack of mentoring. Research suggests that mentoring from senior URM faculty will lower URM faculty attrition rates and lead to success in tenure and promotion. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a mentoring program for new URM faculty in the areas of teaching, advising, research, service, and mastery of subject matter. New URM faculty were matched with URM mentors and received monthly virtual mentoring. Results demonstrated substantial growth in each area post-program, with statistically significant outcomes in the areas of teaching and advising. Faculty reported substantial benefits including sharing experiences, relationship building, lessened feelings of isolation, and increased knowledge of tenure and promotion expectations.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND ITS ROLE IN DEVELOPING THE SKILLS OF FACULTY ‎MEMBERS IN THE LIGHT OF QUALITY STANDARDS AND PERFORMANCE ‎EVALUATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TRIPOLI

Scientific research eventually considered as one of the most important functions and ‎tasks undertaken by the university, and it is a balancing function to the function of ‎education. Thus, universities have become concerned in the process of discovering, ‎transferring and developing knowledge, and that their role is not limited to ‎preparing specialized educates needed by the labor market. Scientific research also ‎contributed to activating the role of The university in developing and serving ‎communities, which imposed on the university to undertake a new mission that led ‎to the necessity of linking the university with the community, and therefore the ‎functions of the university steadily developed. Development, and therefore the ‎university is entrusted with integrated tasks and functions that it performs through ‎its specialized colleges and scientific centers.‎ University institutions have great significance in carrying out scientific research and ‎development, transferring knowledge and technology to a variety of fields and ‎activities of society, where scientific research contributes to adapting and keeping ‎pace with global changes and challenges in the long and near term. We found that ‎developed countries follow in this field many means, including provision of services ‎Education, training for the community, and encouraging universities to carry out ‎scientific research, and also development through their faculty promotion system. ‎The topic of scientific research and its role in developing the skills of faculty ‎members is among the topics that are of great significance at all local and ‎international levels, where university education faces in This era of scientific and ‎technological changes and developments, compulsory on universities to develop and ‎modernize their educational system by paying attention to scientific research, so that ‎they could have constructive possessions in improving the stage of students, in their ‎scientific construction, and forming their characters.

DETERMINANTS OF RESEARCH INTEGRATION INTO TEACHING AND ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE TALES OF BUSINESS EDUCATION FACULTY MEMBERS

All over the world, there are growing concerns about the significant impact played by faculty members in their quest to actively involve their students in the teaching and learning process coupled with administrative processes. Relating to universities in Ghana and in most of the world’s universities, the major criteria for faculty promotion are the quantity and quality of research papers in reputable journals. This has triggered the popular dictum “publish or perish”. Therefore, most faculty members, desirous not to perish (stagnate in their career) and in their quest to be elevated higher on the academic ladder, spend substantial amount of their time working on their research interests to the neglect of integrating these researches into their teaching and administrative practices. This has been attributed to several confounding factors of which this study seeks to unearth. Using the sequential explanatory research design of the mixed methods, the study sought to espouse the determinants of faculty’s ability to effectively integrate research into teaching and administrative practices for purposes of corroboration and expansion. By adopting the census method, all 162 Business Education faculty members were engaged from the public universities in Ghana that offered Business Education. Questionnaires and interview protocols were used for data collection. The questionnaires were validated through the conduct of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). It was therefore, concluded that the determinants of the research-teaching nexus are more curriculum-related. Thus, the nexus highly affects the curriculum than any other aspect of university processes and administrative practices. Nevertheless, it is worthy of note to acknowledge that it does not mean that any researchactive faculty member would automatically integrate their research experience into teaching and administrative practices because such activities require conscious, intentional and intensive efforts. It emanated from the study that the determinants of the research-teaching integration include research productivity stimulation factor, empirically-based teaching factor, research active curriculum factor, time-oriented factor, and responsive curriculum factors. Responsive curriculum is the dominant factor among all the factors affecting the compatibility between research and teaching. It is therefore recommended that universities should draft discipline-specific research-teaching nexus policy documents to cater for subject-specific differences in terms of implementing the nexus. Faculty members should also be sensitised on how to balance their limited time between research and teaching in order to optimise the benefits associated with the research-teaching-administrative nexus to inform both their teaching and administrative practices.

Frequency of Social Media and Digital Scholarship Keywords in U.S. Medical Schools' Promotion and Tenure Guidelines.

Medical schools must have clear policies and procedures for promotion and tenure (P&T) of faculty. Social media and digital scholarship (SMDS) is an emerging form of scholarship capable of reaching audiences quickly, conveniently, and in a wide variety of formats. It is unclear how frequently SMDS is considered during P&T reviews. The authors sought to determine whether current P&T guidelines at medical schools consider SMDS. The authors acquired P&T guidelines from any U.S. Liaison Committee on Medical Education-accredited medical school (or their governing university) that were available online between October and December 2020. Using an iterative process, they developed a bank of keywords that were specific to SMDS or that could include SMDS between October and December 2020. The authors searched each school's guidelines for each keyword and determined whether the word was being used in relation to crediting faculty for SMDS in the context of P&T procedures. The primary outcome measure was the dichotomous presence or absence of SMDS-specific keywords in each school's P&T guidelines. The authors acquired P&T guidelines from 145/154 (94%) medical schools. After removing duplicate documents, the authors considered 139 guidelines. The keyword bank included 59 terms, of which 49 were specific to SMDS and 10 were umbrella terms that could be inclusive of SMDS. Of the 139 guidelines, 121 (87%) contained at least 1 SMDS-specific keyword. Schools had a median of 3 SMDS-specific keywords in their P&T guidelines. As the presence and impact of SMDS increase, schools should provide guidance on its role in the P&T process. Faculty should receive clear guidance on how to document quality SMDS for their promotion file.

Overcoming barriers to promotion for women and underrepresented in medicine faculty in academic emergency medicine.

Equity in the promotion of women and underrepresented minorities (URiM) is essential for the advancement of academic emergency medicine and the specialty as a whole. Forward‐thinking healthcare organizations can best position themselves to optimally care for an increasingly diverse patient population and mentor trainees by championing increased diversity in senior faculty ranks, leadership, and governance roles. This article explores several potential solutions to addressing inequities that hinder the advancement of women and URiM faculty. It is intended to complement the recently approved American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) policy statement aimed at overcoming barriers to promotion of women and URiM faculty in academic emergency medicine. This policy statement was jointly released and supported by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), and the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine (AACEM).

The Relationship Between Applicant Gender and Internal Medicine Residency Interview Scores.

Gender inequity is widespread in academic medicine, including in the promotion, academic recognition, and compensation of female faculty. To assess whether these inequities extend to the GME intern selection process, this study examines differences in the interview scores assigned to male and female applicants at one large internal medicine residency program. Subjects include 1399 applicants who completed 3099 interviews for internship positions for the Brigham and Women's Hospital internal medicine residency in Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) cycles 2015-2016, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020. Unadjusted and multivariable linear regressions were used to assess the simultaneous effect of applicant gender, interviewer gender, and applicant academic characteristics on pre-interview, post-interview, and change in interview scores. Our analysis included 3027 interviews (97.7%) of 1359 applicants (97.1%). There were no statistically significant differences in the interview scores assigned to female versus male applicants. This was true across pre-interview scores (difference = 0.03, P = .61), post-interview scores (difference = 0.00, P = .98), and change in interview scores (difference = 0.01, P = .24) as well as when adjusting for the baseline academic characteristics of both male and female applicants. This was also true when analyzing individual application years, individual residency tracks, and accounting for the gender of the faculty interviewers. The findings do not support the presence of gender inequity in the interview scores assigned to male and female applicants included in this study.

Subspecialty Selection Impacts Research Productivity and Faculty Rank of Academic Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Faculty promotion and research productivity are important for the overall career trajectory of academic orthopaedic surgeons. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role that subspecialty and demographic factors play in research productivity and academic advancement among orthopaedic surgeons. We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of academic rank among orthopaedic surgeons in 2018. We identified academic orthopaedic programs in the United States from the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA) and collected publicly available data for surgeons, including fellowship training, gender, faculty rank, geographic region, and years since residency, from institutional websites. Research productivity was defined with the Hirsch index (h-index) from Scopus, and the m-index was calculated from the surgeon's h-index and the date of the first publication. Multivariate regression analyses were performed to determine the variables that are associated with associate professorship, full professorship, and the h-index. In this study, we identified and included 2,879 academic orthopaedic surgeons. Completion of a fellowship in foot and ankle (odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 2.45 [1.17 to 5.15]), sports medicine (2.15 [1.12 to 4.15]), trauma (2.83 [1.42 to 5.66]), hand and upper extremity (2.20 [1.13 to 4.28]), musculoskeletal oncology (3.28 [1.49 to 7.21]), or upper-extremity reconstruction (3.20 [1.31 to 7.81]) was associated with associate professorship. Completion of a trauma fellowship was associated with full professorship (2.93 [1.27 to 6.77]). Completion of a fellowship in adult reconstruction (difference in least-squares means [95% confidence interval]: 5.01 [1.22 to 8.81]), sports medicine (4.52 [1.00 to 8.04]), spine (5.40 [1.63 to 9.18]), or upper-extremity reconstruction (10.64 [6.15 to 15.12]) or the completion of multiple fellowships (5.12 [1.27 to 8.94]) were independently associated with a higher h-index. Women had significantly lower h-indices than men at the assistant (median [interquartile range]: 3 [1 to 6] versus 4 [2 to 8]) and full professor (17 [12 to 26] versus 22 [13 to 34]) levels. There were no differences in the m-index between men and women at any academic rank. Orthopaedic subspecialty selection is independently associated with research productivity and academic rank. The differences in research productivity may be important to consider when evaluating orthopaedic surgeons for promotion. While female surgeons had lower h-indices than their male counterparts, this difference was not seen when using the m-index.

Value, Support, and Advancement: An Organization’s Role in Faculty Career Intentions in Academic Medicine

PurposeFaculty engagement in academic medical centers is essential to advancing efficient healthcare delivery, research productivity, and organizational quality. The authors used turnover theory to empirically examine factors that influence faculty engagement, including both aspirational and attrition-related career intentions.MethodsUsing a convergent, mixed methods design, the authors surveyed 284 faculty at a large Midwestern public university’s school of medicine in Fall 2015, Fall 2016, and Spring 2017. The study’s questionnaire included a series of scales which informed three outcome variables (promotion aspirations, leadership aspirations, and intent to leave the organization) and four groups (role strain, work–family conflict, organizational commitment and support, and departmental commitment and support) of predictor variables, all of which have been previously validated with medical faculty populations. The scales were followed by open-ended questions which allowed respondents to further elaborate on their experiences in their organization related to each outcome variable. The authors used a hierarchical multiple regression model to assess the effect of each of the four groups of predictor variables on the outcome variables and then employed an iterative thematic analysis of open-ended responses to further elucidate faculty’s reported experiences.ResultsOrganizational commitment and support were significantly associated with faculty’s promotion aspirations, leadership aspirations, and intentions to leave the organization. Thematic analysis of participant responses to open-ended questions further revealed the specific career development support faculty desired, mainly, streamlined and transparent promotion and leadership processes; clear guidance to maneuver these processes; holistic professional development opportunities; feeling valued; and supports for clinical and administrative tasks.ConclusionAdvancing organizational policy that supports infrastructure for evidence-based interventions and programming for the intentional career development of faculty is an important aspect of a proactive talent development and retention model in academic medical centers.

IMPROVING THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

SUMMARY: The peer review process has been regarded as an essential part of accepting or rejecting a paper for publication since 1752 when the process was started by The Royal Society of London in the publication entitled “Philosophical Transactions”. In developing countries, one of the primary reasons for submitting pieces for publication is to support promotion in universities. In fact, the argument can be made that the only reason for publishing in developing countries is for faculty promotion. Despite the peer review process being standard practice for scientic journals, many of the research publications on COVID-19 were not subjected to the peer review system. In fact, numerous publications were pre-prints and papers shared by researchers online which were not peer reviewed, yet they were accepted and published by scientic journals in developing nations. When authors start to lose condence in the peer review process of a journal, they are not likely to submit their research work to such journals and this can lead to a diminished impact and reputation of such journals. Additionally, the selection of the assessors by the Editor-in -Chief is usually from the academic space of the editor and from the colleagues of the editor that usually share the editor's view. Contrary to what some editors in the developing countries believe, medical and academic administrative positions do not necessarily result in expertise in the peer review process. An editor can easily identify a poor assessment of an article, from the vitriolic feed-back of the author to the editor about an assessor when a paper is not recommended for publication. This paper provides evidence of and outlines the possible reasons that the peer review process is substandard in developing countries.

Faculty Promotion and Tenure

Higher Education AbstractsVolume 56, Issue 4 p. 338-339 FACULTY PROMOTION AND TENURE Faculty Promotion and Tenure First published: 08 January 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/hea.19_12178Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume56, Issue4October 2021Pages 338-339 RelatedInformation

Reforming the health care system to address structural racism

Reforming the health care system to address structural racism

University president perceptions of part-time faculty engagement

ABSTRACT Research regarding engagement has received the attention of researchers for the past 30 years. However, research associated with the concept of faculty engagement and its effects on higher education are still recent. This qualitative study examined how faculty engagement was conceptualized in a higher education context where the majority of professors were hired as part-time adjuncts. Analysis of data gathered from interviews with 9 presidents of private universities in Panama revealed that university presidents had incomplete and varied conceptualizations of faculty engagement, framed by their low expectations of part-time adjunct faculty. The analysis also illustrated how the four areas of faculty engagement (teaching, research, outreach, and administration) contained the three sub-dimensions for employee engagement (behavioural, emotional, and cognitive). Practical implications for higher education decision makers, including the improvement and/or implementation of faculty hiring and promotion policy, as well as leadership development for faculty supervisors, were discussed.

Efficiency of “Publish or Perish” Policy—Some Considerations Based on the Uzbekistan Experience

Researchers from Uzbekistan are leading the global list of publications in predatory journals. The current paper reviews the principles of implementation of the “publish or perish policy” in Uzbekistan with an overarching aim of detecting the factors that are pushing more and more scholars to publish the results of their studies in predatory journals. Scientific publications have historically been a cornerstone in the development of science. For the past five decades, the quantity of publications has become a common indicator for determining academic capacity. Governments and institutions are increasingly employing this indicator as an important criterion for promotion and recruitment; simultaneously, researchers are being awarded Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees for the number of articles they publish in scholarly journals. Many talented academics have had a pay rise or promotion declined due to a short or nonexistent bibliography, which leads to significant pressure on academics to publish. The “publish or perish” principle has become a trend in academia and the key performance indicator for habilitation in Uzbekistan. The present study makes a case for re-examining the criteria set by the Supreme Attestation Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for candidates applying for Ph.D. and D.Sc. as well as faculty promotion requirements in the light of current evidence for the deteriorating academic performance of scholars.

Academic Medicine Faculty Perceptions of Work-Life Balance Before and Since the COVID-19 Pandemic

How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected academic medicine faculty's work-life balance is unknown. To assess the association of perceived work-life conflict with academic medicine faculty intention to leave, reducing employment to part time, or declining leadership opportunities before and since the COVID-19 pandemic. An anonymous online survey of medical, graduate, and health professions school faculty was conducted at a single large, urban academic medical center between September 1 and September 25, 2020. Self-assessed intention to leave, reducing employment to part time, or turning down leadership opportunities because of work-life conflict before and since the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 1186 of 3088 (38%) of faculty members who answered the survey, 649 (55%) were women and 682 (58%) were White individuals. Respondents were representative of the overall faculty demographic characteristics except for an overrepresentation of female faculty respondents and underrepresentation of Asian faculty respondents compared with all faculty (female faculty: 649 [55%] vs 1368 [44%]; Asian faculty: 259 [22%] vs 963 [31%]). After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty were more likely to consider leaving or reducing employment to part time compared with before the pandemic (leaving: 225 [23%] vs 133 [14%]; P < .001; reduce hours: 281 [29%] vs 206 [22%]; P < .001). Women were more likely than men to reduce employment to part time before the COVID-19 pandemic (153 [28%] vs 44 [12%]; P < .001) and to consider both leaving or reducing employment to part time since the COVID-19 pandemic (leaving: 154 [28%] vs 56 [15%]; P < .001; reduce employment: 215 [40%] vs 49 [13%]; P < .001). Faculty with children were more likely to consider leaving and reducing employment since the COVID-19 pandemic compared with before the pandemic (leaving: 159 [29%] vs 93 [17%]; P < .001; reduce employment: 213 [40%] vs 130 [24%]; P < .001). Women with children compared with women without children were also more likely to consider leaving since the COVID-19 pandemic than before (113 [35%] vs 39 [17%]; P < .001). Working parent faculty and women were more likely to decline leadership opportunities both before (faculty with children vs without children: 297 [32%] vs 84 [9%]; P < .001; women vs men: 206 [29%] vs 47 [13%]; P < .001) and since the COVID-19 pandemic (faculty with children vs faculty without children: 316 [34%] vs 93 [10 %]; P < .001; women vs men: 148 [28%] vs 51 [14%]; P < .001). In this survey study, the perceived stressors associated with work-life integration were higher in women than men, were highest in women with children, and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The association of both gender and parenting with increased perceived work-life stress may disproportionately decrease the long-term retention and promotion of junior and midcareer women faculty.

Recent Trends in Faculty Promotion in U.S. Medical Schools: Implications for Recruitment, Retention, and Diversity and Inclusion.

Faculty promotion is important for retention and has implications for diversity. This study provides an update on recent trends in faculty promotion in U.S. medical schools. Using data from the Association of American Medical Colleges Faculty Roster, the authors examined trends in faculty promotion over 10 years. Promotion status for full-time assistant and full-time associate professors who started between 2000 and 2009 inclusive was followed from January 1, 2010 to January 1, 2019. The authors used bivariate analyses to assess associations and promotion rates by sex, race/ethnicity, department, tenure status, and degree type. The promotion rate for assistant professors was 44.3% (2,330/5,263) in basic science departments, 37.1% (17,232/46,473) in clinical science departments, and 33.6% (131/390) in other departments. Among clinical departments, family medicine had the lowest rate of promoting assistant professors (24.4%; 484/1,982) and otolaryngology the highest rate (51.2%; 282/551). Faculty members who were male (38.9%; 11,687/30,017), White (40.0%; 12,635/31,596), tenured (58.7%; 98/167) or tenure-eligible (55.6%; 6,653/11,976), and holding MDs/PhDs (48.7%; 1,968/4,038) had higher promotion rates than, respectively, faculty who were female (36.3%; 7,975/21,998), minorities underrepresented in medicine (URM; 31.0%; 1,716/5,539), nontenured (32.5%; 12,174/37,433), and holding other/unknown degrees (20.6%; 195/948; all P < .001). These differences were less pronounced among associate professors; however, URM and nontenured faculty continued to have lower promotion rates compared with White, Asian, or tenured faculty at the associate professor level. Promotion rates varied not only by faculty rank but also by faculty sex, race/ethnicity, department, tenure status, and degree type. The differences were more pronounced for assistant professors than associate professors. URM faculty members, particularly assistant professors, were promoted at lower rates than their White and Asian peers. More research to understand the drivers of disparities in faculty promotion seems warranted.

Implementation and Assessment of a Visiting Scholar Exchange Program in Pediatric Anesthesiology to Promote Junior Faculty and Fellow Professional Development.

Junior faculty in academic medicine often struggle with establishing their careers, resulting in low promotion and high attrition rates. Fellows also grapple with the decision to pursue careers in academic medicine. We report on the implementation and evaluation of a novel faculty and fellows exchange program that promotes career development. In 2017, the University of California San Francisco created a reciprocal faculty exchange program called the Visiting Scholars in Pediatric Anesthesia Program (ViSiPAP). ViSiPAP expanded to involve 17 institutions across the United States. Fellows from 3 of the institutions were paired with faculty mentors to create Fellow/Faculty ViSiPAP. An initial postparticipation survey was sent after each exchange, and a follow-up survey in 2020 assessed ViSiPAP's impact. Fifty-three faculty participated in ViSiPAP and gave 66 presentations, and 20 fellows from 3 institutions gave 20 presentations. The initial postparticipation survey response rate was 88%, and the follow-up survey response rate was 74%. Survey responses indicated that ViSiPAP enhanced fellow and faculty well-being, improved didactic conferences, and provided opportunities for networking and collaborating. The follow-up survey indicated that participation in ViSiPAP led to 45 online academic publications, 39 additional invited presentations, and 8 authorships in peer-reviewed academic journals. ViSiPAP is a successful professional development program for both fellows and junior faculty in pediatric anesthesia. Our program successfully introduced the participants into the pediatric anesthesia community and jumpstarted academic careers. Participation in ViSiPAP led to increased scholarly output and assisted with faculty promotion. This combined fellow/faculty exchange program is a novel approach to professional development and is broadly applicable to other disciplines in academic medicine.

Exploring the experience of medical faculty members about the challenges of academic faculty promotion system in the Iranian context: a qualitative study

Background: Faculties' academic promotion process plays a significant role in career development and organizational change. Studies have indicated that this process is stressful and tense in the Iranian context. This study aimed to identify factors affecting medical faculty academic promotion at Tehran University of Medical Science. Methods: In this qualitative content analysis, 15 faculties at Tehran University of Medical Sciences were studied during 2016-2018. Purpose full sampling used for selecting participants. Data collection was performed using semi-structured interviews and demographic information. The collected data were analyzed through constant comparison analysis using grounded theory data analysis being recommended by Corbin and Strauss 2008. Results: Based on the experiences of participants, the factor affecting medical faculties academic promotion fit in two themes: problems in evaluation process and structural problems in promotion process. The first main theme consists of four main categories, i.e. “quantitative evaluation and objectivity "-'' necessity of differential evaluation "-'' lack of attention to the consequence" and other problems of evaluation area”. The other theme has the following main categories: “high research orientation in regulation "-" necessity of re-defining the promotion indicators"-"mandatory in promotion process" and " lack of attention to occupational problems of faculties”. Each category will have its subcategories. Conclusion: The results indicated that faculties are facing many problems in the field of academic promotion and need to improve the laws, evaluate qualitatively, pay more attention to education criteria, and redefine cultural and executive criteria. Keywords: Academic promotion, medical faculty, medical university, content analysis, challenge