Managers on a Mission: Med schools begin to quantify research, teaching, and patient care

Graphic: Leza Berardone The hallowed halls of medical academia may shudder at the thought of their denizens' life's work in research, teaching, and clinical care being reduced to numbers. But several administrators at the 125 medical schools in the United States feel they can implement a management system that measures outcomes in research, teaching effort, and clinical-work revenue/cost--and still preserve academic excellence. In fact, the system could bring, they say, some sorely needed acco

| 7 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
7:00
Share


Graphic: Leza Berardone
The hallowed halls of medical academia may shudder at the thought of their denizens' life's work in research, teaching, and clinical care being reduced to numbers.

But several administrators at the 125 medical schools in the United States feel they can implement a management system that measures outcomes in research, teaching effort, and clinical-work revenue/cost--and still preserve academic excellence. In fact, the system could bring, they say, some sorely needed accountability to their institutions.

Fiscal management has not been the strong suit of medical schools for many years, administrators say, and the bite managed care took out of a once-comfortable profit margin has exacerbated this situation.

"If tuition and state money are not sufficient for the educational mission, you have choices. You can raise tuition. You can go to the state. Or you say we're making profit on clinical [activities]--let's subsidize education. That's what happened in the ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

  • Katherine Woodbury

    This person does not yet have a bio.

Published In

Share
A greyscale image of cells dividing.
March 2025, Issue 1

How Do Embryos Know How Fast to Develop

In mammals, intracellular clocks begin to tick within days of fertilization.

View this Issue
iStock: Ifongdesign

The Advent of Automated and AI-Driven Benchwork

sampled
Discover the history, mechanics, and potential of PCR.

Become a PCR Pro

Integra Logo
3D rendered cross section of influenza viruses, showing surface proteins on the outside and single stranded RNA inside the virus

Genetic Insights Break Infectious Pathogen Barriers

Thermo Fisher Logo
A photo of sample storage boxes in an ultra-low temperature freezer.

Navigating Cold Storage Solutions

PHCbi logo 

Products

Sapio Sciences

Sapio Sciences Makes AI-Native Drug Discovery Seamless with NVIDIA BioNeMo

DeNovix Logo

New DeNovix Helium Nano Volume Spectrophotometer

Olink Logo

Olink® Reveal: Accessible NGS-based proteomics for every lab

Olink logo
Zymo Logo

Zymo Research Launches the Quick-16S™ Full-Length Library Prep Kit