Comparison of scholarly productivity of general and subspecialty clinician-educators in internal medicine.
BACKGROUND
Peer-reviewed publications and extramural reputation are criteria used to evaluate clinician-educators for promotion. There is concern that these criteria may be disadvantageous to clinician-educators in generalist fields relative to their specialist counterparts.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether medicine subspecialists had more peer-reviewed publications and academic activities outside their home institution than general internal medicine (GIM) faculty, and to explore possible explanations for observed differences.


METHODS
Cross-sectional survey of all clinician-educators in a department of medicine at a leading public U.S. medical school. The survey assessed clinical duties, publications, and professional activities.


RESULTS
Seventy-one percent (42/59) of clinician-educator faculty responded. GIM clinician-educators spent fewer months on inpatient services (p = 0.01), but more time in clinic (p = 0.05). Specialist clinician-educators had more peer-reviewed publications (p = 0.003), but total publications since entering a clinician-educator track was similar (p > 0.2). After multiple linear regression, only academic rank (p = 0.001) and subspecialty membership (p = 0.005) remained significant predictors of peer-reviewed publication. GIM faculty reported spending more scholarly time on "activities unlikely to result in publication" (p < 0.01). A greater proportion of specialists served on extramural committees (72% vs. 41%, p = 0.05) and lectured outside their home institution in the preceding year (92% vs. 59%, p = 0.02).


CONCLUSIONS
In this single-institution survey, specialist clinician-educators reported more peer-reviewed publications and greater participation in other reputation-enhancing activities than did GIM clinician-educators.
Kempainen
Robert R
RR
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA. kempa001@umn.edu
McKone
Edward F
EF
Rubenfeld
Gordon D
GD
Scott
Craig S
CS
Tonelli
Mark R
MR
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D010819:Physician's Role; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014861:Washington; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data