Archive for May, 2010

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Hospitalists

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Yesterday’s New York Times ran a story about the rise of hospitalists in health care. The physician profiled works at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she splits her time between patient care and information technology.

In this age of accountability and quality assurance, having a specialist just for hospitalized patients will certainly help patient outcomes and increase efficiency. Another benefit of being a hospitalist that the article does not mention is the attraction of having a predictable schedule.

On the negative side, I wonder how hospitalists can advance their careers in an academic medical center. Do they have time to reflect on their work and produce scholarship? Are they documenting the teaching they do? It’s still a relatively new track in departments of medicine, so it is worth watching to see how those faculty develop professionally.

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Posted in Faculty development | 24 Comments »

Promotion

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

The Association of American Medical Colleges released its latest Analysis in Brief. These two-page reports synthesize large data sets into legible snapshots. In this case, the picture is of promotion rates for medical school faculty.

The results are discouraging. First-time assistant professors between 1967 and 1976 took 5.2 years to get promoted. In each subsequent decade, the average time to promotion has increased until the most recent cohort, which averages 6.2 years to reach promotion.

Men are more likely to be promoted than women and white faculty are more likely to be promoted than minorities. We're still compiling statistics at Boston University's Department of Medicine to see how we stack up with these national numbers.

Still, the trend is undeniable. A smaller proportion of the faculty are getting promoted, and it's taking longer for them to do it.

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Do You Know Why?

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

One of the most consistently provocative podcasts is the stream of TED talks. The acronym stands for technology, education, and design, but the topics include just about anything. In addition to presenting innovative ideas, TED speakers model how to give conference talks. They have a single argument, avoid notes, use repetition, and sit down after about 18 minutes.

Marketing guru Simon Sinek provides an example of a successful talk. He offers a clear idea with several relevant examples. He contends that what makes companies, activists, and managers persuasive to people is that they know the why behind what they're doing. Apple, for instance, doesn't just sell computers, it sells the core belief of thinking differently.

For medical school faculty, it's also important to keep the answer to the "why" question at the forefront. Whether it's organizing a lab or managing a clinic or teaching trainees, the "what" of the day's tasks will get accomplished more effectively if everyone one knows and buys into the "why" behind the project.

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Posted in Faculty development | 5 Comments »

Poisonous Plastics

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

This weekend 60 Minutes broadcast a report about the dangers posed by phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals found in flexible plastic consumer items like shower curtains, vinyl raincoats, and even rubber duckies. Research by University of Rochester professor Shanna Swan has shown that exposure to phthalates interrupts the production of testosterone in young boys, leading to misshapen sexual organs.

Dr. Swan's research is a good example of the power of medical research. It has led to a federal law banning the use of phthalates in the manufacture of toys.

At the same time, the 60 Minutes piece demonstrates the dangers of scientists bringing their findings to the public. Lesley Stahl follows the media rule of showing both sides to every argument whether they are balanced or not. She interviews a businessman who must spend $8,000 to test a toy microscope for the outlawed toxin. She also talks to a scientist who says that experiments done in rats do not necessarily apply to humans.

When biomedical scientists communicate their conclusions more broadly, they have to be aware that not everyone understands what proof means in a research setting. They have to be particularly careful to specify what their findings can mean and to educate reporters about the tentative nature of scientific knowledge.

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Posted in Faculty development | 8 Comments »

Conflicts of Interest

Monday, May 24th, 2010

The National Institutes of Health recently unveiled new guidelines governing conflicts of interest in biomedical research. These suggestions will be subject to public comment for sixty days.

According to InsideHigherEd.com, which published a report on the new regulations, most stakeholders seemed pleased with the move to increased transparency. Everyone from the AAMC to Iowa Senator Charles Grassley applaud the idea of holding institutions accountable for revealing financial ties between researchers and industry.

In an age of eroding public confidence in institutions, it seems crucial that biomedical research remain untainted by the appearance of impropriety. Still, I'm struck by what the additional reporting assumes about the scientific process.

If having a financial stake in the research can affect the study's outcome, what does it say about the objectivity of science? Are PIs intentionally manipulating data to produce a favorable result, or, are there less conscious ways that bias creeps in?

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Posted in Faculty development | 17 Comments »

Revealing Resumes

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Student confabulist Adam Wheeler has been in the news for faking his way into Harvard. Proof of his exaggerations and prevarications came on his resume, which claims authorship of six books and mastering of Classical Persian.

While I cannot condone lying about credentials, Wheeler's resume is instructive in another way. His formatting exemplifies good resume practice. The font is clear and legible. The categories are logically labeled. The most important information comes first.

He avoids other common pitfalls of resume writing. The dates appear on the right, which effectively emphasizes the (embellished) achievements, not the years he accomplished them. Wheeler also gives explanatory text for institution-specific awards. This helps contextualize honors unfamiliar to many outside Harvard.

The resume is also notable for what it leaves out. It doesn't say "Resume" on the top. It doesn't say "Reference furnished upon request," both phrases are pointless. He doesn't include irrelevant personal information. If any good came from Wheeler's deception, it is the reminder of how to put together a resume that gets you noticed.

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E-Mail Jail

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Chris Shanahan, one of our faculty members, gave a seminar this week on how to break out of e-mail jail. At first I thought the title referred to how tightly Outlook tethers us to our computers, but at the session I learned that some colleagues reside in a more literal jail. Their accounts are so full that they cannot receive mail. One audience member counted 3,000 messages in her inbox!

Chris's presentation borrowed from 12-step programs to approach the problem. He advised breaking the task into more manageable chunks and committing to clearing out the inbox by the end of everyday. This goal may be unrealistic, but by aiming for an ideal, you're likely to settle for something better than the status quo.

As a long-time Mac user, I tend to blame part of the problem on Microsoft's clunky design. At least in Outlook 2003, the interface makes efficiency a challenge. What's the difference between "Personal Folders," my mailbox folders, and favorite folders? For some reason, I have a "Calendar" and a separate "Calendar in Personal Folders." And these don't share a screen with my inbox.

It's like what economists have learned about motivating workers to invest in retirement plans. If you make it automatic, people will do it. But if you set up barriers to efficiency, most people will stay disorganized.

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Finding a Cure for Cancer

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Malcolm Gladwell has become a favorite management guru for his pithy accounts of how innovation happens. His New Yorker pieces and bestselling books synthesize the latest social science research into counterintuitive narratives.

In Outliers, he debunked the idea that genius is inbred. In Blink he suggested that snap judgments often have more accuracy than reasoned evaluation.

In a recent New Yorker issue devoted to innovation, Gladwell analyzes oncology research. His descriptions of lab science belie the image of the triumphant PI pursuing a clear vision. Often, the biggest breakthroughs come from the least planned experiments. Moreover, the most effective treatments are cobbled together approaches, not a single, miraculous drug.

His account emphasizes the need to allow serendipity in research as well as humility.

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Posted in Faculty development | 18 Comments »

Planning for Retirement

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Few topics can kill a conversation like retirement planning. For as dull as the topic is, spending some time early in a career thinking about it can pay large dividends in the long run.

Boston University offers two retirement programs for employees. In the first plan, which kicks in after two years of service, the university makes a contribution to your retirement account based on your salary. The second plan, which you can start anytime, allows employees to defer up to $16,5000 a year into a supplemental account. This money is pre-tax, so at the same time it lowers your overall compensation for tax purposes.

For the supplemental plan (also known as a 403b), BU employees can choose from a suite of funds managed by TIAA-CREF or Fidelity. Both have solid reputations and low fees, but Fidelity offers more investment options. Of course, for some people, having fewer choices is a good thing.

Both TIAA-CREF and Fidelity send reps to the medical campus each month for free consultations. It's worth making an appointment every few years or so to make sure you're on track to meet your retirement goals.

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Posted in Faculty development | 91 Comments »

Mentoring in the Aftermath

Monday, May 17th, 2010

It has been several months since the news of Amy Bishop's attack on her colleagues at the University of Alabama, Huntsville made national news. Although Bishop's New England roots have kept the story in the Boston press, it wasn't until I read an article in a recent issue of Nature that I learned how her department is coping with the loss of key faculty.

When you see the portraits of her murdered colleagues, it becomes clear that the UAH biology faculty included several minority scientists. In turn, they mentored many minority graduate students, who were left without advisers. Retired faculty and area industry leaders have stepped in to help shepherd the doctoral students, but the loss reveals how much effort a mentor must expend to develop a cadre of future faculty.

The second insight from the Nature report is what happened to the deceased PI's grants. Government funding goes to the institution, not the faculty member, so the department was able to have surviving members take over existing grants. The NSF and NIH also gave extensions on all the grants except for Bishop's own.

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Posted in Faculty development | 1 Comment »

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