On Monday, Jan. 7, HMS dean Jeffrey Flier hosted the inaugural presentation of new criteria for faculty appointment and promotion at HMS and HSDM, including a presentation by Ellice Lieberman, HMS dean for faculty affairs. The new criteria represent the culmination of a year of work by a faculty task force that Lieberman chaired. Three members of the task force, Edward Benz, president of Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; Jules Dienstag, HMS dean for medical education; and Douglas Hanto, the Lewis Thomas professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and HMS, participated in a panel discussion that considered the implications of the revised framework for advancement.
The new criteria introduce several innovations. Under the former criteria, faculty members were evaluated as either clinician-teachers or investigators. With the new guidelines, individuals are not categorized into a single set of criteria. Rather, there is a flexible structure that provides a menu of options, allowing assembly of a profile that reflects the unique combination of activities and accomplishments of each faculty member. The criteria also recognize the broad range of faculty contributions that support the academic mission including administrative leadership and service to the community. This structure allows the sum total of an individual’s achievements to be considered in the evaluation for promotion.
“If Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine are to continue to attract and retain the best scientists, clinical experts, and teachers in the world, it is essential that the contributions of faculty to new paradigms of research, clinical care, and education be rewarded by promotion,” Flier said. “These new promotion criteria are an important element in achieving this goal.”
Although the structure of the criteria has changed, many of the fundamental principles remain the same. The new criteria, for example, maintain the expectation of excellence in the faculty member’s major area of academic activity. In addition, the criteria maintain a requirement for scholarship for promotion to all ranks, except for promotion to assistant professor by longer service criteria.
The new framework recognizes the increasing importance of multidisciplinary research and the goal of translating basic research from bench to bedside and back. The criteria reward the intellectual contributions of faculty to collaborative research, including contributions from individuals from diverse fields such as biostatisticians and physicists, who bring unique expertise to the biomedical research team.
Another hallmark of the new criteria is the expectation that all faculty, with rare exceptions, will participate in the HMS teaching mission. “Medical education reform has increased the need for educational innovation and excellence in the classroom, the laboratory, and the clinical setting,” said Dienstag. “The requirement that all faculty be evaluated for their educational contributions to Harvard highlights the core commitment of HMS and HSDM to educating our students, trainees, and faculty.”
As part of the evaluation for promotion, the criteria also explicitly consider community service and programs that increase diversity. “Rewarding the development of programs that improve the diversity of our faculty and trainees in the promotion process is a big step forward,” said Joan Reede, HMS dean for diversity and community partnership.
Under the new guidelines, the evaluation of each candidate has three components (see figure above):
- selection of one of three areas of excellence—teaching and educational leadership, clinical expertise and innovation, or investigation—representing the major area of academic achievement and impact;
- evaluation for contributions to teaching and education; and
- report of significant supporting activities apart from the candidate’s area of excellence, where appropriate. Activities that may be reported include clinical expertise, investigation, education of patients and service to the community, and administration and institutional service.
The new criteria will be implemented in the spring of 2008. Promotions already in progress under the former criteria will not be affected.
The presentation at HMS was the first of a series of events to introduce the new criteria to the faculty. Presentations are scheduled at all affiliated institutions. Other resources include a booklet explaining the new criteria that will be sent to all faculty and an interactive website (www.hms.harvard.edu/fa/promotion.htm) that faculty members can use to create a customized set of promotion criteria. For questions about the new criteria or more general questions about promotion and appointments, contact the Office for Faculty Affairs by e-mail at OFA_Promotions@hms.harvard.edu or by phone at 617-432-7112.
