LETTER OF EXPERIENCE ABOUT FACULTY PROMOTION IN MEDICAL-SCHOOLS

The author discusses major issues of faculty promotion in medical scho ols by describing the decision-making processes of the Professorial Pr omotion Committee (PPC) at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, a com mittee he chaired for several years. Perhaps the major dilemma of medi cal school promotion committees is how to define standards that encomp ass the several different excellences and highly diverse talents of th eir faculty. This dilemma prompts a search for a natural set of ''fami lies'' of rank, admission to which can be defined clearly and operatio nally. The author discusses methods of doing this (via various faculty track systems) and the pros and cons of each; analyzes the processes by which the PPC assesses evidence of nominees' achievements and attri butes of scholarship; defines the three major career pathways at his s chool and explains the criteria used to evaluate nominees in each; out -lines how the PPC evaluates individuals nominated for their excellenc e in teaching; and describes characteristics of nominees that may lead to their rejection. Re makes clear that the decision-making processes of effective promotion committees are neither simple nor mechanistic and are sometimes difficult and problematic, and stresses the importan ce (in any promotional process, whether the setting be a medical schoo l or a pencil factory) of institutional memory and of the committee's knowledge of leaders elsewhere whose generative contributions can be c ompared with those of nominees. The author concludes that the promotio nal process is not a simple ''survival of the fittest'' exercise but i s a struggle to realize and foster an ideal of faculty quality to cont inue the high level of the institution's excellence and collegiality.