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Final Program

Exhibits

Contacts

Focus Sessions

Doctors and Flat Screens in a Flat World

Advancing Gender and Ethnic Diversity in Biomedical Leadership

Is Your Academic Medical Center a Great Place to Work?

Reforms in Industry Funding of Academic Medicine

Diversity Across the Physician Education Continuum

Stopping Medical "Homelessness"

Alan Gregg Memorial Lecture
Doctors and Flat Screens in a Flat World

Fitzhugh Mullan, M.D.
Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services

Moderator: James Scott, M.D.

Dr. Mullan discussed how, globally, physicians' practice choices are influenced by the lure of cutting-edge consumer goods, as represented by the "flat screen." Labeling the U.S. use of international medical graduates as poor domestic and global policy, Dr. Mullan presented the negative effects of physician migration and offered suggestions for helping the United States become more successful in the social aspects of medicine.

Herbert W. Nickens Lecture
Advancing Gender and Ethnic Diversity in Biomedical Leadership: A Personal Perspective

Vivian W. Pinn, M.D.
Associate Director for Research on Women's Health and Director
Office of Research on Women's Health, National Institutes of Health

Moderator: Charles Terrell, Ed.D.

Vivian W. Pinn, M.D., recipient of the 2008 Herbert W. Nickens Award, spoke on the importance of women and minority representation in biomedical research professions. Pinn said that the same barriers to a more diverse biomedical research workforce—gender bias, family responsibilities, and similar factors—still exist just as they have for decades. She highlighted several programs and studies that held promise for shoring up the educational pipeline into health and research careers, and called on current researchers to "have a mentor, and be a mentor" to those hoping to follow in their footsteps.

Presentation (PDF, 89 pages)

Is Your Academic Medical Center a Great Place to Work? Lessons in Building Faculty Vitality

Valerie Williams, Ph.D., M.P.A.
Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development
Associate Dean, College of Medicine
University of Oklahoma College of Medicine

Pedro Delgado, M.D.
Professor and Chair of the Psychiatry Department, University of Texas School of Medicine at San Antonio

Moderator: Debra Fiser, M.D.

Responder: Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., AAMC President and CEO

This session explored faculty dissatisfaction at medical schools and teaching hospitals—why it occurs, what are its consequences, and how can we fix it.

The moderator, Debra Fiser, M.D., began by explaining why the academic medical community should try to eliminate faculty dissatisfaction. For one, centers should altruistically want faculty to enjoy their work. Also, the financial cost of turnover, Fiser said, is very costly.

Valerie Williams, Ph.D., M.P.A., said that "medical schools and teaching hospitals must leverage partnerships" with their faculty to build greater faculty satisfaction. She said that over a 10-year span, 38 percent of medical faculty leave academia. These departures, Williams said, "take their toll and cost us dearly."

Pedro Delgado, M.D., discussed findings from University of Texas School of Medicine at San Antonio's participation in a faculty satisfaction survey. The results showed that faculty were disappointed in their compensation and perks, and the availability of mentors. Among specific groups of faculty, women were less satisfied than men in the opportunities and promotions they received. Basic science faculty were more content with their salaries than their clinical science counterparts, Delgado said.

After reviewing these results, the school is assessing its compensation system, working to improve communication with faculty, and reviewing its promotion and tenure process, Delgado said. Conducting more studies on faculty satisfaction is also important, he said.

"If we continue to measure these outcomes, we can get a sense of whether these changes are making [a difference]," he said.

In response, AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., said that more analysis on faculty satisfaction is necessary. He discussed Faculty Forward, an AAMC pilot program that will help medical centers examine and improve faculty satisfaction.

Presentation (PDF, 33 pages)

Reforms in Industry Funding of Academic Medicine

Laura L. Forese, M.D., M.P.H.
Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer Chief Operating Officer
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, The University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell

Patrick J. Brennan, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President
University of Pennsylvania Health System

Philip A. Pizzo, M.D.
Dean
Stanford University School of Medicine

Moderator: Arthur S. Levine, M.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

With financial conflicts of interest in medical care, research, and education top of mind for many in academic medicine, several medical school and teaching hospital leaders convened to share their policies in regulating how their physicians, faculty, and learners interact with industry officials.

The speakers profiled their institutional policies, which regulate gifts, travel, scholarships, visits from industry representatives, and continuing medical education, among other things. All four leaders agreed that the policies were "a work in progress" and that more needed to be done to build an effective "firewall" between academia and industry without compromising the positive aspects of the relationships.

Diversity Across the Physician Education Continuum

Ron Garcia, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean for Minority Affairs
Director, Center of Excellence and Health Careers Opportunity
Stanford University School of Medicine

Tawara D. Goode, M.A.
Assistant Professor and Director, National Center for Cultural Competence, Center for Child and Human Development
Georgetown University School of Medicine

Moderator: Jeannette E. South-Paul, M.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Family Medicine
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Respondent: Tanika M. Pinn, M.D., Fellow, University of Tennessee Medical Center

Diversity among medical trainees and faculty is critical in achieving a high-quality educational environment, said Jeannette E. South-Paul, M.D., moderator in a session that closely examined diversity in medical education. South-Paul said that there has not been substantial growth among faculty from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Minority faculty, she added, "are overrepresented at the lower levels" of academia.

Ron Garcia, Ph.D., spoke about Stanford University School of Medicine's efforts in the diversity arena. The school has instituted a "diversity cabinet" of administrators that collaborate on ways it can enhance gender, racial, and ethnic diversity at various stages of the medical education pipeline. The cabinet includes faculty members from graduate medical education, medical student advising, and medical school admissions.

Tawara G. Goode, M.A., focused her discussion on cultural competency, which she defined as the ability to work effectively cross culturally. For an organization to be culturally competent, it must value and adapt to diversity, conduct cultural self-assessment, and institutionalize cultural knowledge.

Goode acknowledged that some critics of cultural competence call it a "passing trend," but she encouraged the audience to prioritize this important issue.

In her response, Tanika M. Pinn, M.D., touched on her experiences with diversity. As a medical student, Pinn was involved in creating Diversity Week, where students celebrate their own cultures by showcasing some traditional dances, food, and clothing. Diversity Week includes panels on issues such as sexual orientation. Pinn said she is excited about our country's progress to date in increasing diversity in the health care workforce, and is optimistic about the future.

"Diversity...is the new black," Pinn said.

Presentations

Diversity Across the Physician Education Continuum (PDF, 25 pages)

Ron Garcia, Ph.D. (PDF, 5 pages)

Tawara D. Goode, M.A. (PDF, 14 pages)

Tanika M. Pinn, M.D. (PDF, 16 pages)

Stopping Medical "Homelessness": Academic Health Centers' Role in the Medical Home

Paul Grundy, M.D., M.P.H.
Director of Healthcare Technology, IBM
Chairman of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC)

J. Lloyd Michener, M.D.
Duke University School of Medicine

Moderator: Steven Altschuler, M.D., Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The AAMC medical home position statement was the foundation for this focus session, which explored medical home creation in private business and in academia.

Dr. Paul Grundy discussed patient care from a business standpoint. He argued that dissatisfaction with health care plans led to the creation of the PCPCC (a coalition of employers committed to the medical home model of care), which lowers costs and produces better health outcomes for employees.

J. Lloyd Michener, M.D., represented academic medicine. Dr. Michener discussed the challenges faced by Duke in its medical home experiment, and encouraged those in the audience to adopt the medical home system of care at their own institutions.