Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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When faculty have tenure, are their salaries protected? If so, what portion and in what circumstances? In the era of managed care and shrinking resources, these questions are becoming particularly important at medical schools because salaries there tend to be higher than salaries elsewhere in academia and because those salaries are more commonly dependent on outside funding. A fundamental question that will increasingly be asked is whether reductions in the salaries of tenured faculty are legally permissible. To a large extent, the answer is a matter of interpreting what each medical school has contractually obligated itself to do regarding tenure; generally, schools' tenure rules support the legal right to impose a salary reduction. ⋯ Although the main historical purpose of tenure was the protection of academic freedom, can the protection of salary be encompassed within this purpose? Usually not; the current situation is almost always one in which cost concerns, not political ones, motivate medical schools to reduce the salaries of faculty with reduced funding or practice incomes. The author concludes that although there are few precedents and many unexplored issues, it is clear that tenure was not intended to protect full salaries at most medical schools. His view is that in appropriate circumstances, reductions in the salaries of tenured faculty are legally achievable.
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To assess the status of basic science departments in academic health centers through a survey of department chairs. ⋯ This survey reveals certain profound and disconcerting changes in the basic science departments of U.S. medical school. More studies are needed to see whether these trends continue. Further downsizing and merging of the basic sciences should be avoided in order to preserve the quality of medical education for future physicians as well as the quality of health care in the United States.
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To determine which of 33 topics academic deans identify as worthy of greater emphasis in medical curricula. Also, to assess the barriers to needed curricular changes. ⋯ Changes in health care delivery and an increasing generalist orientation are influencing academic deans' perspectives on needed curriculum changes, and there appears to be considerable support for medical school curricula that will foster a broader, more humanistic role for physicians.