Strategies to assess and reward faculty productivity at American
academic medical centers improve research productivity, according
to a systematic review led by Elie
A. Akl, MD, PhD.
They also may improve clinical productivity, but their impact on
teaching productivity is far less clear.
“The data suggest that when faculty productivity is
assessed in connection with an appropriate compensation or
incentive scheme, the results can create positive cultural change
within a department, helping it to achieve its mission,” says
Akl, associate professor of medicine, family medicine and
social and preventive
medicine.
Such strategies may have had no apparent effect on teaching
productivity because there is no effect or because the studies
included in the analysis were unable to detect one, according to
Akl.
“Enhancing the productivity of faculty in academic medical
departments is essential for improving their reputation and
ensuring their growth,” he adds. “This has become vital
for survival amid current financial realities.”
Akl and his colleagues next plan to survey chairs of departments
of medicine across the country to better understand whether and how
they are measuring and compensating faculty productivity.
“We need higher quality evidence about the potential
benefits and harms of such assessment strategies,” he
says.
The current study, titled “Effects
of assessing the productivity of faculty in academic medical
centres: a systematic review,” was published in the Canadian Medical Association
Journal.
It involved comprehensively reviewing the medical literature for
studies that evaluated strategies to assess faculty productivity,
ultimately analyzing the results of eight relevant studies.
Akl’s co-authors are from UB; McMaster University, where
he also has a faculty appointment; the Regina Elena National Cancer
Institute in Rome, which funded the study; the German Cochrane
Centre; the Institute of Biostatics and Medical Informatics; and
the University Medical Center in Freiberg, Germany.
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