Dean Jeffrey S. Flier began the meeting by announcing Sheila Barnett’s election to the newly created Faculty Council vice chair-elect position and will begin work in the fall. Flier noted that the Council nomination and election process would commence the following week.
Flier then introduced Nancy Tarbell, dean for academic and clinical affairs, who gave an overview of the HMS academic departments and the requirements involved in gaining department status. Tarbell noted that one of the defining features of an academic department is its power to appoint faculty members, and she described additional characteristics including existence as an independent medical discipline with a separate board and an independent residency program. Each department is also required to have departmental status at the hospital level, an adequate number of senior faculty members to form an executive committee, and a demonstrated level of research, scholarly activities, teaching and clinical care.
Tarbell asked the Council to consider several key questions when thinking about what defines academic departmental status including what criteria should be considered and the risks/benefits of forming a new department. Flier noted that he is often asked why family medicine is not an academic department and noted that without a request from the hospitals, it is unlikely that HMS would create a new department. David Brown inquired about requests to form a department in the fields of urology and neurology, to which Flier replied that no such requests had been received during his deanship. David Golan suggested that another consideration is whether basic science and clinical department criteria should be the same.
Flier then introduced Robert Barbieri, chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and chair of the Emergency Medicine Advisory Group, to report on the group’s recommendations to the dean.
Barbieri said the advisory group, whose members include Maureen Connelly, Mark Gebhardt, Gary Fleisher, Joseph Loscalzo, Robert Moellering, Nancy Tarbell and Andrew Warshaw, had three formal meetings, including one with Flier. Barbieri explained that the group determined that there is a clear developmental pathway towards HMS departmental status for the Division of Emergency Medicine; however, it felt that there are criteria that the Division had not yet met. There was concern that the Division would not be able to form an executive committee presently, but that this could likely be accomplished within the next few years when there could be a sufficient number of senior faculty to serve on the committee. The group also recommended that the Division continue to develop the breadth, collaborative intensity, and visibility of its research programs.
Barbieri explained that if the executive committee did not have a full complement of senior faculty, he questioned whether this would be an appropriate group to develop portfolios for recruitment and promotions. Anthony D’Amico commented that three rotating chairs work well for executive committees and Flier added that the general goal is for each of the academic department executive committees to have rotating chairs.
Michael VanRooyen suggested that since the Division had come so far in the process that its request for departmental status is kept active until the threshold number of senior faculty is reached. David Cardozo recommended that there be a very clear commitment to teaching medicine at all levels in order to be considered for departmental status. Martin Samuels pointed out that a division does not have the same influence that a department does and that departments may not always represent other divisions adequately.
Flier summarized the discussion, stating that his sense was that the Council was favorably disposed to the evolution of emergency medicine becoming an academic department in the next few years. He also said that he was impressed with the work done by the Emergency Medicine Advisory Group.
Flier adjourned the meeting.
