AAMC Reporter, October 2000: Reclaiming Our Province: The Role of Academic Medical Centers in Clinical Trials

VOLUME 9, NUMBER 13

JORDAN J. COHEN, M.D., PRESIDENT

OCTOBER 2000

AAMC Authors Contribute to Special JAMA Issue

by Jennifer Bush

Minority faculty promotion rates, growth in faculty salaries, and medical school finances were among the topics discussed by AAMC authors in the Journal of the American Medical Association's annual issue on medical education, published Sept. 6.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Faculty Promotion in Academic Medicine

Minority faculty are more likely to be affiliated with departments and medical schools with lower promotion rates and less likely to be on tenure tracks to receive NIH awards - the two strongest positive predictors of promotion, according to authors Di Fang, Ph.D., Ernest Moy, M.D., Lois Colburn, and Jeanne Hurley. The study followed 50,000 full-time U.S. medical school faculty who became assistant or associate professors between 1980 and 1989.

Trends in U.S. Medical School Faculty Salaries, 1988-1989 to 1998-1999

AAMC research shows that while actual average medical school faculty salaries are increasing, the real growth rate of average clinical faculty salaries is declining and that of basic science faculty increasing. between 1988 and 1998, the actual median clinical faculty salary increased from $101,000 to $150,000, and the actual median basic science faculty salary increased from $52,000 to $78,000, according to AAMC authors Erich Studer-Ellis, Ph.D., Jennifer Gold, and Robert Jones, Ph.D.

Review of U.S. Medical School Finances, 1998-1999

Revenue supporting programs and activities of the 125 accredited medical schools in the U.S. totaled $39.7 billion in 1998-1999. Three sources accounted for 79.3 percent of total revenues: practice plans, grants and contracts, and hospital support. AAMC authors Jack Krakower, Ph.D., Tanya Coble, Donna Williams, and Robert Jones, Ph.D., gathered the data from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education's Annual Medical School Questionnaire.

AAMC's 2000 Graduation Questionnaire

Data from the AAMC's annual graduate questionnaire indicate that many of the objectives set forth in the AAMC's Medical School Objective Project are addressed in medical school curricula, according to a letter submitted to JAMA by the AAMC's John Lockwood, Ph.D., Deborah Danoff, M.D., and Michael Whitcomb, M.D. These objectives include technology in medicine, nutrition, and compassionate treatment of patients.