• Berend Mets, Jennifer A Galford, and Heather R Purichia.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033-0850, USA. bmets@psu.edu
• Anesth. Analg. 2007 Nov 1;105(5):1338-45, table of contents.

Background/MethodsWe conducted an Internet-based survey of all current academic anesthesiology chairpersons to benchmark their characteristics and accomplishments, as well as to gain insights that might be useful to aspirant department chairs.ResultsThe response rate was 55%; chairs were predominantly male (92%), with a mean age of 55 yr and an average time in post of 6.5 yr. They were American medical graduates (82%), had undergone a research (31%) or a clinical fellowship (57%), were full professors (86%) and practiced most commonly as generalists and in intensive care. Chairs had a significant record of scholarship, including a median of 30 peer-reviewed papers, and an average of 11.0 industry and 2.7 federal grants. Thirty-two percent served as editors of peer-reviewed journals and 42% have served as president/chairman of national committees. Fully 30% of current chairs had previous experience as a chair. Sixty-eight percent of current chairs decided early in their career (at the resident/fellow or assistant professor level) that they wished to be a chair. In advising aspirant chairs, the most helpful experience to being a chair was that of having served as a vice chair, and the highest rated advice was to become a division director. Chairs were predominantly satisfied with their position (median 3 of 10) and 44% would return to clinical anesthesiology after chairmanship.ConclusionsThe survey suggests that anesthesiology chairs value peer-reviewed research, scholarship, and academic achievement, but do not believe that significant research experience is of great benefit to functioning as a chair.

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