Awarding faculty rank to non-tenured physician faculty in a consortium medical school

Many medical schools struggle to identify an appropriate system to award faculty rank to non-tenured physician faculty. A key element needs to be balanced recognition of teaching and scholarly activities. At the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM), clinical teaching is accomplished predominantly by volunteer physician faculty whose major responsibilities are patient care and teaching. In addition to our system for awarding rank to faculty in a tenure track, NEOUCOM devised a system for awarding faculty rank to volunteer, non-tenure physician faculty that equitably recognizes teaching, service, and scholarly activity with assigned "units" of accomplishment for each criterion. We now have an effective two-track system for our non-tenure physician faculty that objectively assesses and recognizes academic productivity in all three areas and standardizes requirements for promotion. This paper discusses 3 years of experience with this two-track system and its effect on the rank of physician faculty in the Department of Family Medicine.