A survey of
medical school faculty retention has found that almost 2 of every
5 faculty members leave academic medicine within a decade. According
to the latest issue of AAMC Analysis in Brief, after 10 years, 52
percent of medical school faculty remained at their medical schools,
10 percent switched medical schools, and 38 percent left academic
medicine. First-time assistant professors were more likely than
faculty overall to leave academic medicine, with a 43 percent attrition
rate versus 38 percent. Given the high cost of turnover and concerns
about faculty satisfaction, morale, and retention, these latest
findings reinforce the importance that medical schools place on
faculty development programs and improvements to workplace environments.
NIH acts to implement enhanced
peer review
Working groups of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have
completed their year-long examination of the agency's peer-review
processes. An implementation plan to enhance the peer-review process
was presented recently at a meeting of the NIH's Advisory Committee
to the Director. Given that the plan responds to comments submitted
previously by the research community, the NIH announced that it
would act to implement the recommendations, which address four major
priorities: engaging the best reviewers by offering better compensation,
flexibility, and standardized training; shorten and redesign applications
to improve the quality and transparency of reviews; ensure balanced
and fair reviews across scientific fields and career stages; and
develop a permanent process to continuously evaluate peer review.
As part of the implementation, NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.,
announced the agency's commitment to spend $1 billion over the next
five years on investigator-initiated, high-risk, high-impact transformative
research. Implementation is expected to be carried out over the
next 18 months.
Report evaluates impact of price transparency
for health care services
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released a report
evaluating whether increased transparency for health care services
and pharmaceuticals would help temper the rapid growth in health
care costs. According to the report, more than 80 percent of the
population is covered by some form of health insurance, "which insulates
people from the full price of health care they consume, limiting
their incentive to compare prices." Similarly, spending on emergency
services is typically not a concern to insured or uninsured citizens.
While "more transparency" would make provider charges "more visible,"
the report states, it remains unclear whether such disclosures ultimately
would lead to higher or lower prices for consumers. The CBO points
out that the nature of health care market competition further complicates
the ability to determine the ultimate impact of transparency. The
report concludes that added transparency for health care costs probably
would result in a reduction in the range of prices.
Scholars wanted for health research,
policy program
The Robert
Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program is seeking
applicants for the two-year program beginning fall 2009. The program
is designed to build the nation's capacity for research, leadership,
and policy change to address the multiple determinants of population
health. Participating scholars are trained to investigate the connections
among biological, genetic, behavioral, environmental, economic,
and social determinants of health, and to develop, evaluate, and
disseminate knowledge interventions that integrate and act on these
determinants to improve health. Eligible applicants must have completed
doctoral training by August or September 2009 in one of a variety
of fields including, but not limited to, the behavioral and social
sciences, the biological and natural sciences, health professions,
public policy, public health, history, demography, environmental
sciences, urban planning, engineering, and ethics; have significant
research experience; clearly connect their research interests to
substantive population health concerns; and be citizens or permanent
residents of the United States or its territories. Up to 18 scholars
will be selected. Applications are due Oct. 3.
On the move
Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., will become vice president and dean of
the University of Virginia School of Medicine on Aug. 1. DeKosky
currently serves as professor and chairman of the Department of
Neurology and director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
at the University of Pittsburgh.
Mike Garrison will step down as president of West Virginia University,
effective Sept. 1. He has served as the university's president for
one year.
