3.2 Academic Medicine
A physician’s contribution to medicine is more than just hands-on
patient care; medical research led by physician-scientists have made
lasting impacts in human advancements through discovery of new
medicines, procedures, and mechanisms of immunity. Physicians continue
to play a major role in scientific advancement. Currently of the 14,000
physician-scientists practicing in the U.S., roughly 8,000 have Research
Project Grants from the NIH.11 In the past 25 years,
over 33% of Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine had an MD degree.
Roughly 66% of NIH Institute directors, pharmaceutical chief scientific
officers, and National Academy of Sciences have an MD
Degree.12 The continuation of academic research
throughout a medical career has yielded significant improvements on
overall wellbeing and has led to scholarly achievement serving a major
role in determining the academic advancement of physicians.
Scientific output also impacts personal career advancement
opportunities. Using a measure of scientific output called the h-index,
a variety of studies have shown that a higher h-index correlates with
higher faculty rank.10,13-20 Looking amongst academic
rank among 14 surveyed medical specialties, assistant professors scored
a h-index score between 2-5, associate professors 6-10, and full
professors 12-24.16 Amongst hand surgeons, though
there are many factors that play into determining academic rank, the
H-index was the most strongly correlated with academic
rank.15 Other studies have also shown positive
correlation with h-index and academic rank within the fields of
ophthalmology, urology and radiology.14,17,18 As
components of promotion become multifaceted and more diverse, the
importance of h-index for rank advancement becomes seamlessly evident.