Measuring faculty effort and contributions in medical education

A national panel on medical education was appointed as a component of the A AMC's Mission-based Management Program and charged with developing a metric s system for measuring medical school faculty effort and contributions to a school's education mission. The panel first defined important variables to be considered in creating such a system: the education programs in which m edical school faculty participate; the categories of education work that ma y be performed in each program (teaching, development of education products , administration and service, and scholarship in education); and the array of specific education activities that faculty could perform in each of thes e work areas. The panel based the system on a relative value scale, since t his approach does not equate faculty performance solely to the time expende d by a faculty member in pursuit of a specific activity. Also, a four-step process to create relative value units (RVUs) for education activities was developed. This process incorporates quantitative and qualitative measures of faculty activity and also can measure and value the distribution of facu lty effort relative to a school's education mission. When adapted to the ed ucation mission and culture of an individual school, the proposed metrics s ystem can provide critical information that will assist the school's leader ship in evaluating and rewarding faculty performance in education and will support a mission-based' management strategy in the school.