The Value of Supporting Education Research in the Academic Environment: The Hospital for Special Surgery Academy of Rheumatology Medical Educators.

PROBLEM: Medical education academies have been instrumental in providing greater recognition of and promotion for clinician-educators. However, producing education scholarship is essential for clinician-scholar-educator career advancement. Grant funding for education research and protected time to produce scholarship are still lacking for interested physicians, in part due to institutional budget constraints and competing priorities. APPROACH: The Hospital for Special Surgery Academy of Rheumatology Medical Educators was founded in 2011 to promote education scholarship through grants awarded to educators interested in research. Educators were asked to submit proposals aimed at the development of new teaching programs and curricular change. Selected applicants received up to $50,000 per year for one year. Grant money was obtained through directed fundraising from donors. Information from annual grant updates and survey responses from grant recipients in 2017 were used to assess the academy's effectiveness. OUTCOMES: Since 2012, 32 grants have been awarded, totaling $954,045 in funding. Recipients have produced national meeting abstracts, posters, oral presentations, and manuscripts and created unique curricula and electronic learning tools for medical students, residents, fellows, faculty, and patients. Four educators with demonstrated interest and research outcomes were identified during the pilot and received additional funding and support from a dedicated education research assistant. NEXT STEPS: The academy and the innovations grants program highlight the talents of under-supported and under-recognized teaching faculty by allowing them to distinguish themselves academically as clinician-scholar-educators. The success of these educators emphasizes the clear advantages of a formalized structure to achieve the hospital's education goals. Next steps include providing support for a rheumatology fellow to develop an education research career rather than one in bench, clinical, or translational research.

Building a rheumatology education academy: insights from assessment of needs during a rheumatology division retreat.

OBJECTIVE: To implement a rheumatology department education retreat to systematically identify and address the key factors necessary to improve medical education in our division in preparation for developing a rheumatology academy. METHODS: The Hospital for Special Surgery organized a retreat for the Rheumatology Department aimed at (1) providing formal didactics and (2) assessing participants' self-reported skills and interest in education with the goal of directing this information toward formalizing improvement. In a mixed-methods study design, faculty and fellows in the Division of Rheumatology were surveyed online pre- and post-retreat regarding various aspects of the current education program, their teaching abilities, interest and time spent in teaching, divisional resources allocated, and how education is valued. RESULTS: Enthusiasm for teaching was high before and rose further after the retreat. Confidence in abilities was higher than expected before but fell afterward. Many noted that the lack of specific feedback on teaching skills and useful metrics to assess performance prevented the achievement of educational excellence. Most responding felt lack of time, knowledge of how to teach well, and resources prevented them from making greater commitments to educational endeavors and participating fully and effectively in the department's teaching activities. CONCLUSION: While most rheumatology faculty members want to improve as teachers, they know neither where their educational strengths and weaknesses lie nor where or how to begin to change their teaching abilities. The key elements for an academy would thus be an educational environment that elevates the quality of teaching throughout the division and promotes teaching careers and education research, and raises the importance and quality of teaching to equivalence with clinical care and research.

Creating an academy of medical educators: how and where to start.

BACKGROUND: While most faculty members want to improve as teachers, they neither know where their educational strengths and weaknesses lie nor where or how to begin to effect a change in their teaching abilities. The lack of actionable, directed and specific feedback, and sensible and sensitive metrics to assess performance and improvement complicates the attainment of educational excellence. PURPOSE: The purpose of this article was to outline a series of specific steps that medical education programs can take to enhance the quality of teaching, promote teaching excellence, elevate the status and value of medical educators, and stimulate the creation of innovative teaching programs and curricula. METHODS: To achieve these goals at the Hospital for Special Surgery, the Academy of Rheumatology Medical Educators was formed. The academy had the following goals: (1) create within our institution a mission which advances and supports educators, (2) establish a membership composed of distinguished educators, (3) create a formal organizational structure with designated leadership, (4) dedicate resources that fund mission-related initiatives and research, and (5) establish a plan for promoting teachers as well as enhancing and advancing educational scholarship. RESULTS: The Hospital for Special Surgery Academy of Rheumatology Medical Educators was recently formed to address these goals by promoting teaching and learning of musculoskeletal skills in an environment that is supportive to educators and trainees and provides much needed resources for teachers. SUMMARY: The development of a pilot academy of medical educators represents one of the high-priority goals of those institutions that wish to elevate and enrich their teaching through a structured, proven approach.