Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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Many physicians believe that the tasks of postgraduate medical education and faculty development are best carried out by senior physicians trained in the appropriate specialty. However, many also will admit that, as physicians, they have received too little training for such an educational role, and that the practical demands of medical practice, scientific research, and administration make it difficult if not impossible to allocate time to continuing medical education program development, curriculum design for residency training, teacher training, and other key aspects of postgraduate medical education. ⋯ Such consultants in postgraduate medical education and training programs in anesthesiology could perform a wide variety of functions and roles because they possess skills and technical expertise in teaching, training, curriculum design, evaluation, program planning, and interpersonal communications that faculty members often lack. The successful use of a nonphysician consultant in the Department of Anesthesiology at Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is described.