AMSPDC: Current Initiatives and Future Opportunities
Article Outline
The Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs (AMSPDC) was founded in 1964 with a mission to “foster the advancement of education and research in the field of child health and human development.” In 1997, the name of the organization was changed from the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department “Chairmen” to “Chairs” to recognize the membership more appropriately. Currently, AMSPDC has 147 members throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The organization conducts an annual meeting with the Pediatric Scientist Development Program1 and meets triennially with the affiliated Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP).2 ASMSPDC also is an active member of the Federation of Pediatric Organizations3 and the Pediatric Public Policy Council. The organization is governed by an executive committee of 6 members serving staggered 3-year terms, a secretary/treasurer serving a 6-year term, and the past-president, president-elect, and the president, each serving 2-year terms.
It has been my privilege to serve as president of AMSPDC from March 2005 to 2007. Each president aspires to accomplish certain objectives during the 2-year term, in addition to addressing important anticipated and unexpected issues arising in academic pediatrics. My priorities were to evaluate the turnover of leadership within pediatric departments and assess factors leading to chair satisfaction and burnout, to evaluate and enhance the value of our annual meeting, and to work with other pediatric organizations to establish an organization or forum for pediatric subspecialty organizations that could address cross-cutting subspecialty issues (eg, timing of fellowship offer dates).4
My first priority led to a review of the turnover of pediatric chairs from 1993 to 2003. We found a high turnover rate for pediatric chairs (average 17% annual turnover) and a mean tenure for this cohort of chairs of 5.6 years.5 Despite a growing representation of women among pediatric faculty, the number of women chairs actually decreased from 13 to 11 chairs during the time of the study; furthermore, women chairs had an average time in position of only 3.4 years.5 Many departments had multiple leaders during the 10-year period. Six departments had 4 different leaders, and 3 departments had 5 leaders during the 10-year study period. These data stimulated us to survey our membership to determine factors related to burnout and job satisfaction and to consider ways we can support our membership, particularly chairs early in their careers. Although most chairs are satisfied with their positions, our survey identified many chairs as having burnout.6 Burnout was most common in chairs early in their careers.
For many years, AMSPDC has provided a leadership and management program for new chairs every 3 years. Because of the rapid turnover of pediatric chairs, materials from this meeting are being made available on request to new or established chairs, and the content of the program is being reevaluated. Perhaps more important, a mentoring/advisement program for chairs is being developed and will become part of our annual meeting. We hope that by identifying and addressing key stressors, chairs will have less burnout and develop longer and more rewarding careers as departmental leaders.
My second priority was to use our annual meeting to allow more discussion and networking among our membership. Our program committee has developed meetings that provide additional time for group discussions and recommendations about important current issues in academic medicine. In our 2006 meeting, we discussed issues related to career success for women in pediatrics, competency-based versus time-based certification, resident and fellowship education, and the need for an enduring subspecialty forum. After our meeting, the women chairs within AMSPDC published a paper addressing important barriers to the success of women faculty and giving recommendations to address work/life balance and family issues in pediatrics.7 In their review, women chairs focused on 4 areas: options to work part-time, availability of day care, flexibility in career paths for physician-scientists, and attracting more women into academic leadership positions.7 In addition, we conducted a survey of family-centered practices among AMSPDC departments to make best-practices available to all academic pediatric departments; a manuscript is now in press.8
Finally, AMSPDC has joined with the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD), the Pediatric Academic Society Alliance Societies, and FOPO to consider an organization to encourage communication between pediatric subspecialty societies and to host a forum at the 2006 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) meetings to discuss the creation of a Council of Pediatric Specialties. The strong support garnered at that PAS meeting led to an organizational meeting and the creation of the Council of Pediatric Subspecialties in September 2006. This effort will be discussed in more depth in a future publication. One of the important issues to be addressed by the Council will be the timing of pediatric fellowship offers.4 On the basis of discussions at our 2006 AMSPDC annual meeting, the executive committee of AMSPDC has agreed to provide initial financial support for the founding of the Council (in partnership with the APPD).
There has been no shortage of important topics within academic pediatrics for AMSPDC to address during my 2 years as president. Issues such as graduate medical education funding for children’s hospitals, Medicaid reimbursements, Hurricane Katrina relief, the organization of the FOPO and creation of the FOPO executive director position, medical student education and web-based teaching tools, funding for pediatric scientists, and ra eview of the pediatric residency and fellowship curriculum were and/or remain important areas for AMSPDC to address in partnership with other pediatric organizations. I believe that clinical reimbursement for both primary care and subspecialty pediatricians, NIH funding of pediatric physician scientists, and the added teaching requirements for the proposed expansion of medical school enrollments will be among the top challenges facing pediatric chairs in the near future.
Clearly the demands on chairs of pediatric departments have changed and expanded since the inception of AMSPDC in 1964. Chairs not only continue to provide leadership in education and research, but they also lead clinical programs in highly competitive and often under-funded markets. In addition, many chairs provide significant hospital administrative leadership, especially in departments based at children’s hospitals. Although the initial vision of AMSPDC in 1964 is still relevant, AMSPDC appropriately has broadened its vision to assist chairs in serving their multiple departmental roles. A re-evaluation of the mission statement and the goals of AMSPDC is timely in light of the growing leadership demands on pediatric chairs. A strategic planning process is being developed by the executive committee.
Despite the significant challenges facing pediatric chairs and academic medicine in general, the dynamic discussions at our annual meetings and my personal conversations with fellow chairs give me great confidence that academic pediatric departments have talented and thoughtful leaders. AMSPDC is an important organization to sustain and support these leaders in their important work.
References
- . Career development for physician scientists: The model of the Pediatric Scientist Development Program. J Pediatr. 2002;140:143–144
- Guiding medical students through the match: perspectives from recent graduates. Pediatrics. 2003;112:502–505
- . Commentary: Implementing the FOPE II recommendations. J Pediatr. 2003;142:597–598
- . A uniform 3rd year application and offer date for pediatric fellow applicants: pro and con. J Pediatr. 2006;149:587–588
- . Leadership trends in academic pediatric departments. Pediatrics. 2005;116:342–344
- McPhillips, Stanton B, Zuckerman B, Stapleton FB. Stress and burnout among pediatric department chairs. (Under review).
- . Women in pediatrics (Recommendations for the future). Pediatrics. 2006;In press
- . Towards creating family friendly work environments in pediatrics: baseline data from pediatric department chairs and pediatric program directors. Pediatrics. 2006;In press
EDITOR’S NOTE: With this commentary by outgoing AMSPDC president F. Bruder Stapleton, we initiate an occasional series of “From the AMSPDC President.” These commentaries, which will be published on the AMSPDC page approximately once a year, will present issues, summaries, or opinions from the current AMSPDC president.—Bonita Stanton, MD, Section Editor, The Journal of Pediatrics
PII: S0022-3476(06)01178-4
doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2006.12.001
© 2007 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
