Challanges Confronting Medical Center Leadership: Perspectives of Deans and Clinical Depart ment Chairs
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
The initial project was commissioned by the Council of Deans of the AAMC in order to explore factors contributing to the short average tenure of medical school deans and generate strategies for enhancing their effectiveness. The research relied on inductive analyses of in-depth interviews with a sample of twenty-two current and former deans from around the country. Among the forces that emerged as important in the analysis were changes in the health care environment (e.g., conflicts between service and teaching missions), issues concerning governance (e.g., alignment of responsibilities with authority to manage, leverage for promoting institutional allegiance among strong department chairs), deficiencies in prior preparation and expertise, and inadequacies in the search process. A parallel project is underway exploring similar issues with a sample of forty department chairs (medicine, surgery, family medicine, OB-GYN, pathology). A secondary emphasis addresses the barriers to advancement of women as leaders in academic medicine.
Psychosocial Aspects of Bioterrorism: Education for Readiness and Response
Center for Disease Control (CDC)
This project evaluated a training program to prepare practicing physicians to address the psychosocial sequelae of a bioterrorist event. The program prepared physicians to diagnose and treat stress-related disorders among their patients, to address responses to stress among members of the health care team, and to effectively communicate with the public about risks and response following such an event. The training was offered four times during the project-year – twice in NYC, once in Rochester, and once in Albany. The evaluation effort was designed to assist the development of effective training and provide an indication of its immediate impact. These aims were realized through two sets of activities: a series of focus group interviews designed to yield formative input to curricula development and future dissemination; and a pre- and post-training assessment of knowledge and attitudes.
The Role of the Clinician-Patient Relationship in Cancer Care and Research
The Fannie E. Rippel Foundation; Grant to the Hastings Center
This project was shaped by recognition that current views of essential features of effective doctor-patient relationships are based largely on outmoded or inappropriate assumptions about the nature of disease, the meaning of illness, appropriate roles and needs of patients and providers, and the ultimate purposes of care. Analysis of interviews with leaders of cancer advocacy and self-help organizations provided a basis for rethinking existing conceptions of doctor-patient relationships to better accommodate new caring modalities, such as those envisioned by cancer self-help and survivor advocates. Among the topics covered in the interviews were: views on the essential elements of doctor-patient relationships, expectations of doctors and patients and how inherent responsibilities can be reasonably met, and strategies for achieving a better accommodation between needs and expectations, on the one hand, and the realities of doctor-patient interactions in our current health care environment on the other.
Use of Targeted General Support Grants as a Strategy to Increase Organizational Capacity
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
CHPSR is examining how the six juvenile justice organizations that received general support from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation in September 1998 are using their grants to build their organizational capacities. The purpose of this project is to help the Foundation better understand the potential for this type of grant making, the inherent challenges and risks, and strategies to ensure the best possible outcomes for investments.
Principal Investigator(s): Ellen Schall
