Promotion Criteria for Medical Educators: Are We Climbing a Ladder with Invisible Rungs?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Academic Promotion
• Faculty Development

Background:

• The Association of American Medical Colleges recommended standardized documentation for medical educators' contributions in 2006.
• Current academic promotion guidelines for medical educators in the United States (US) lack consistency and clarity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize current US medical school promotion guidelines for medical educators.
• To assess the adoption of recommended standards for documenting educator contributions.

Main Methods:

• Publicly available promotion criteria from US medical schools were collected (March-July 2022).
• Data were categorized using traditional domains and peer-reviewed standards.
• Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis.

Main Results:

• Promotion criteria were available for 143 of 155 medical schools (92%).
• Sixty-four percent of schools identified a distinct educator track.
• Only 57% of schools with an educator track require additional teaching documentation, and 37% require an Educational Portfolio.

Conclusions:

• Current promotion criteria for medical educators exhibit significant variability and lack of standardization.
• The 2006 recommendations from the Association of American Medical Colleges have not been widely implemented.
• There is a critical need for more objective criteria to evaluate and recognize the contributions of medical educators.