title: Comparison of scholarly productivity of general and subspecialty clinician-educators in internal medicine.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA. kempa001@umn.edu
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Kempainen
authors.forename: Edward F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: McKone
authors.forename: Gordon D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Rubenfeld
authors.forename: Craig S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Tonelli
mesh_terms: 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