Survey Finds That Medical Researchers' Median Salaries Increased Last Year

Medical schools and hospitals paid their research scientists higher average salaries last year than during the previous two years, according to a recently released survey conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Annual actual salaries for medical research scientists reached an average of $36,485 in 1991, a 17.4 percent increase over the 1989 level and 26.8 percent more than the 1990 figure, according to the survey. The institution polled 33 hospitals, 11 medical schools, and 53 medical centers--facilities combining hospitals and schools--throughout the United States as part of an examination of salary data for 50 health-care positions. Salary data on a total of 120 research scientists were collected. The survey defined a research scientist as someone with a Ph.D. who plans and directs a major medical project, prepares and submits grant proposals, administers funds, defines problems, offers solutions, establishes procedures, evaluates findings, makes presentations, and may supervise a staff. Areas in which research scientists typically are engaged include immunology and AIDS; cancer; cardiovascular physiology, such as heart failure and hypertension; and neural sciences. "This position [the research scientist] primarily exists in a medical school setting" or in medical centers, but not very frequently in hospitals, says Paul Keith, assistant director of human resources at the University of Texas at Galveston. "In most medical schools, part of the faculty responsibility is to find new solutions to health care—new drugs or processes.” He adds that the likely reason for the dip in average annual salary between 1989 and 1991 was that the 1990 poll had fewer respondents than did its 1989 and 1991 counterparts. “It was probably skewed by a lack of participants,” Keith says. The 1991 survey found that median pay at hospitals was $52,506, considerably higher than the $37,523 median salary paid by medical centers and the $35,043 median found at medical schools. The survey also found that median pay at institutions with 300 to 499 beds was $39,238, and that the median salary reached $41,868 at institutions with 500 to 699 beds. Insufficient data existed for institutions with smaller or larger numbers of beds. In the Northeast, median pay was $39,998, while research scientists working in the South Central states, such as Texas, received a median salary of $25,262. Keith emphasizes that research scientists are viewed differently depending upon the institution. For example, at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth, the role consists of a one- or two-year stint for overseas applicants who do little teaching and are closely supervised. Elsewhere, however, research scientists may be expected to assume a regular teaching load while applying for grants to conduct a full research project in a laboratory setting. Many also serve on organizational committees. “In most universities, research scientists are faculty members with varying degrees of administrative and teaching responsibilities,” says Thomas F. Burks, executive vice president for research and academic affairs at the University of Texas at Houston Health Science Center. “But institutional customs may vary a great deal.” Typically, there are three tracks. At a school, a scientist will occupy a regular faculty position or may do mostly research and only some teaching. In a clinical setting, the scientist will provide patient care and teach. For research scientists who work at universities, “80 to 90 percent of the time is spent doing research,” says John Hall, chairman of the physiology and biophysics department at the University Of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. Says Houston's Burks: “Research scientists are responsible for mounting effective areas of research that are of interest to the institution. The research track is very much defined according to the local institution.” In some places, research scientists may take a postdoctoral fellowship for two to three years in a laboratory setting, which means that tenure won't be available. Often, these situations are most attractive to scientists who want to stay with the project they're working on, says Burks. Hall notes that research scientists fare best when they have good financial support for their projects. That's because many institutions prefer to hire these scientists when they know that grants from federal or state government will pay for portions of the research. However, Hall says that funding is getting harder to find, making it difficult to land desirable positions. “It's very competitive right now,” he says. “There are a lot of research scientists looking for jobs.” For instance, he says, the National Institutes of Health is funding only 20 percent of all grants approved, causing many scientists to rewrite their proposals in the hopes of receiving financial backing on a second or third try. “The marketplace has really become a buyer's market,” says Hall, who also sits on an NIH study section that reviews grants. “The institution has a wide choice... . And not too many young research scientists have good research support.” Consequently, he believes that fewer people are applying to graduate schools and to do research, opting instead to practice medicine. “There's a track followed in research science—establish yourself in a good institution with a good lab under the wing of a good scientist,” Hall says. Because it's so hard to find these opportunities, “it's not what I'd call a very attractive position,” he says. Nonetheless, Burks notes that “with the increasing complexity of science we're doing, we need more brainpower. It's too difficult for any one individual to bring it all into one lab.... These are extremely valuable components to the progress of science.” Edward K Silverman is a freelance Writer based in Hoboken, NJ.

Survey Finds That Medical Researchers' Median Salaries Increased Last Year

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