Since clinician educators remain the most recruited group of cardiologists and the nature of academic promotion continues to evolve, fostering and supporting these physicians may be critical to the future of academic cardiology, according to a paper published Feb. 4 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Keri M. Shafer, MD, FACC, et al., analyzed results from a survey developed by ACC's Early Career Professionals Academic Work Group that looked at the challenges facing cardiologists focusing on education. The 317 survey respondents included members of ACC's Academic Section, who were either a precursory rank academic cardiologist, or an advanced rank academic cardiologist with a current leadership or administrative role.

Results showed that the challenges of clinical educators include "limited access to formal faculty development training on educational techniques, balancing educational efforts with clinical demands, and attaining measures of educational productivity."

The survey also found that mentorship, which the authors explain is a "crucial step to success in academic medicine," was lacking in the respondents. The authors note that available local and national resources for mentorship may not be clearly communicated.

Furthermore, data from the survey suggest that techniques to establish parity between clinical and educational activities could be helpful since clinician educators report that they spend more time than desired in nonteaching clinical activities. Shafer et al., explain that educational relative value units or similar programs could mitigate this negative cycle.

The authors note that academic cardiologists constantly face pressures from competing priorities, including escalating financial demands in the wake of recent health care reforms and increasingly limited grant funding.

They conclude that the results of the survey "demonstrate a myriad of challenges and opportunities for improvement in the promotion of clinician educators: establishment of standardized criteria, improved mentorship and support, and recognition of educational productivity."

Keywords: Mentors, Leadership, Health Care Reform, Faculty, Medicine, Surveys and Questionnaires

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