Publications and extramural activities of general internal medicine and medicine subspecialty clinician-educators: a multicenter study.
OBJECTIVE
Generalist clinician-educators may have more difficulty than specialists satisfying common promotion criteria (peer-reviewed publication and extramural reputation). This study compared publication rates and participation in extramural activities among subspecialist and generalist clinician-educators, and sought to determine the views of clinician-educators on the use of publication and reputation in determining their promotion.


METHODS
A cross-sectional questionnaire was delivered to 526 clinician-educators identified by the chairs at ten randomly selected U.S. medical schools in 2002.


RESULTS
A total of 270 clinician-educators responded. Medicine subspecialist clinician-educators reported more peer-reviewed publications than did general internal medicine (GIM) faculty (mean 26.4 versus 10.2, p < .003). Independent predictors of having a greater number of peer-reviewed publications were subspecialty membership (p < .01), less time spent in clinic (p < .01), focus of scholarship (p = .01), academic rank (p < .01), higher quartile of National Institutes of Health funding received by respondent's department (p < .01), and years on faculty (p = .03). A greater proportion of GIM faculty reported spending most of their protected time on scholarly activities less amenable to publication (p = .05). A greater proportion of subspecialists felt peer-reviewed publication should be required for promotion (p < .01), but a minority of both groups felt this should necessarily entail original research.


CONCLUSIONS
Subspecialist clinician-educators generate significantly more peer-reviewed publications than do their GIM colleagues. clinician-educators hold diverse views on the role of publication and reputation in determining their promotion.
Kempainen
Robert R
RR
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
McKone
Edward F
EF
Rubenfeld
Gordon D
GD
Scott
Craig S
CS
Tonelli
Mark R
MR
D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000458:organization & administration; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002322:Career Mobility; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D014481:United States; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data