Family medicine department chairs face high patient care demands and barriers to scholarly activity

Impact of financial incentives and department size on scholarly activity output

2025-01-27

(Press-News.org) Background and Goal: Research in family medicine is vital for improving patient care, health care systems, and population health. However, family medicine faces barriers to producing scholarly work, including high patient care demands and limited funding. This study examined whether financial incentives and department size influence the amount and type of scholarly activity produced by family medicine departments.

Study Approach: Researchers surveyed family medicine department chairs across the U.S. and Canada using a Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance (CERA) questionnaire. The survey gathered data on scholarly activities such as research articles and presentations and whether departments offered financial incentives for such work. Researchers used statistical analysis to explore associations between financial incentives, department size, and scholarly output.

Main Results: Of 225 department chairs invited, 106 responded.

Only 39% of responding departments offered financial incentives for scholarly activity, with 18% providing cash-based incentives.

Departments that offered financial incentives did not report high scholarly output rates.

Departments with fewer than 25 full-time faculty were 80% less likely to produce six or more presentations.

The main barriers to offering financial incentives were institutional budget constraints and department culture or tradition.

Why It Matters: Institutions aiming to increase scholarly productivity in family medicine departments may benefit from focusing on increasing faculty size or investing in consultants, statistical analysts, grant writers, or other research staff.

Impact of Financial Incentives and Department Size on Scholarly Activity Output

Dominique D. Munroe, MD, MPH, et al

Emory University, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

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