The Medical Elite


Book Description

In the tradition of C. Wright Mills, Stephen J. Miller defines and analyzes the power of the medical elite in American elite. He describes a group of interns who are becoming the successors of the physicians who determine the character of medicine in a complex society. The group is at the Harvard Medical Unit of the Boston City Hospital, and its members are heirs apparent to the elite of the medical profession. Miller spent more than a year living with these interns. He observed them as they worked on the wards, in clinics, and on the accident floor. He interviewed interns, administrators, teachers, researchers, and other personnel at the university-affiliated hospital. He describes how members of the elite are chosen and promoted, discusses what makes them elite, and demonstrates how they maintain their elite status. In the course of his analysis he describes fully the training of these young physicians and how their internship prepares them for the future role in medicine. The thrust of the book is to document the training of interns in a big-city hospital and to describe the operations and self-perpetuating tactics of elite. The best or the elite of the medical profession, explains Miller, are teachers and researchers at medical schools and particularly those at "name" schools and their affiliated hospitals. More than half of those who served in the internship program went on to become professors, deans, chairmen, and administrators in those institutions. The author describes how interns serve the purpose of the elite they may someday join: they provide the bulk of the medical care at the hospital and, by so doing, free the researchers so that they are able to spend more time in the laboratory. While much of what interns do is everyday tasks of caring for patients, those who serve such internships are taking the first step on a route that leads to membership in the medical elite




Management and Leadership Skills for Medical Faculty


Book Description

Recognizing that medical faculty face different questions or issues in different stages of their careers, this handy, practical title offers a comprehensive roadmap and range of solutions to common challenges in the complex and changing Academic Medical Center (AMC). With critical insights and strategies for both aspiring and seasoned academicians, this handbook offers a concise guide for personal career development, executive skill acquisition, and leadership principles, providing actionable, targeted advice for faculty seeking help on a myriad of new issues and situations. Pressures in today’s Academic Medical Center include significant changes to the healthcare system, competition for research funding, transformation of medical education, and recruitment and retention of the ever-evolving workforce. This dynamic environment calls for razor-sharp leadership and management effectiveness to stay competitive. AMC faculty aspire to formal leadership roles for a variety of reasons: to set a new vision, to create change, or to affect policy and resource decisions. For others, weariness of past leadership styles or mistakes may catalyze wanting a chance to set a different tone. In the end, promotional opportunities often come with great administrative and management responsibilities. Management and Leadership Skills for Medical Faculty: A Practical Handbook is a must-have resource for faculty in AMCs and anyone with a role in healthcare leadership.







Achieving Excellence in Medical Education


Book Description

Offering theoretical insights and practical suggestions, Achieving Excellence in Medical Education explores an essential question facing medical educators and learners: What is our vision of educational excellence and what can be done to enhance performance? Coverage includes: resources for promoting excellence in medical education, promises and pitfalls of new educational technologies, and medical education’s role in preparing future leaders.




Lead, Inspire, Thrive


Book Description

This handy reference will help medical school department chairs and other Academic Health Center (AHC) leaders navigate the important, challenging and complex responsibilities and opportunities of their positions, whether they are new, experienced or future leaders. Medical school department chairs support four distinct missions (education, research, clinical care and public service), which serve multiple constituents, have different measures of success, and sometimes are in direct conflict for resources across the different priorities of their AHC and its component organizations. Having served as medical school department chairs, program and center directors, medical school deans, and AHC chief executives, the authors have seen first-hand the increasing difficulty and complexity of these roles and the inspiring impact these leaders can have on those they serve. This book shares their insights by providing contemporary and comprehensive information to help these leaders navigate the many issues and opportunities they face. While serving as a medical school department chair is challenging on many levels, it is one of the most important roles in AHCs and can be an extremely rewarding leadership position. Timely advice and guidance are keys to success, and this book articulates and answers the most common questions faced by medical school department chairs and other leaders over their careers.




Management and Leadership Skills for Medical Faculty and Healthcare Executives


Book Description

Recognizing that leaders in healthcare institutions face different questions and issues in different stages of their careers, this handy, practical title offers a comprehensive roadmap and range of solutions to common challenges in the complex and changing Academic Medical Center (AMC) and health care organization. Fully updated from the very well-received first edition and including new chapters, this concise handbook offers a guide for personal career development, executive skill acquisition, and leadership principles, providing real-world, actionable advice for faculty and executives seeking help on a myriad of new issues and situations. With a slightly modified title to recognize that leaders in academic medical centers and health care systems are not limited to medical faculty, this new edition maintains much of the content of the successful first edition with revisions based on feedback from readers and colleagues. New material has been added to reflect what is happening as health care undergoes major transformation. With a broader panel of renowned authors from a mix of healthcare institutions as well as nonmedical experts in leadership and management, the book again meets its primary objective: to provide medical faculty, healthcare executives and other leaders with a contemporary, directly relevant resource that emphasizes practical skills and leadership development advice, including personal improvement, which can be used at any stage of one’s career. /div /divWith critical insights and strategies for both aspiring and seasoned academicians and health executives, Management and Leadership Skills for Medical Faculty and Healthcare Executives: A Practical Handbook, 2nd Edition is a must-have resource for faculty in AMCs and for anyone with a role in healthcare leadership.




Leadership Lessons for Health Care Providers


Book Description

The rapid changes in health care including novel technologies as well as the changing economic, political, and social landscapes are all forcing physicians as well as most types of health care practitioners to re-think their role in leadership. This is particularly true in the US in recent years, but the same issues are widely prevalent affecting health care workers around the globe. Developing capable medical leaders who can navigate these challenges will be essential. Physicians and other health care practitioners usually receive little or no leadership training in the course of their education. At the next steps in their training: internship, residency and fellowship, gaining clinical acumen takes precedence over developing other skills that are at the core of leadership training. Leadership Lessons for Health Care Providers will allow all types of health professionals to gain a better understanding of what leadership is, how to develop their skills while still early in their careers, how to understand and handle common leadership conundrums and chart a path towards increasing their leadership capabilities as they reach mid-career and beyond. This book will provide a great start for those who are interested in learning more about leadership and includes recommendations for next steps at all stages in leadership work. Discusses and offers practical advice on a number of leadership development topics including levels of leadership, different styles and techniques, dealing with conflict, making hard decisions, and setting priorities Includes valuable insight from leaders and specialists in the health care field Directs readers to additional leadership resources as next steps




Educating Physicians


Book Description

PRAISE FOR EDUCATING PHYSICIANS "Educating Physicians provides a masterful analysis of undergraduate and graduate medical education in the United States today. It represents a major educational document, based firmly on educational psychology, learning theory, empirical studies, and careful personal observations of many individual programs. It also recognizes the importance of financing, regulation, and institutional culture on the learning environment, which suffuses its recommendations for reform with cogency and power. Most important, like Abraham Flexner's classic study a century ago, the report recognizes that medical education and practice, at their core, are profoundly moral enterprises. This is a landmark volume that merits attention from anyone even peripherally involved with medical education." —Kenneth M. Ludmerer, author, Time to Heal: American Medical Education from the Turn of the Century to the Era of Managed Care "This is a very important book that comes at a critical time in our nation's history. We will not have enduring health care reform in this country unless we rethink our medical education paradigms. This book is a call to arms for doing just that." —George E. Thibault, president, Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation "The authors provide us with the evidence-based model for physician education with associated changes in infrastructure, policy, and our roles as educators. Whether you agree or not with their conclusions, if you are a teacher this book is a must-read as it will frame both what and how we discuss medical education throughout the current century." —Deborah Simpson, associate dean for educational support and evaluation, Medical College of Wisconsin "A provocative book that provides us with a creative vision for medical education. Using in-depth case studies of innovative educational practices illustrating what is actually possible, the authors provide sage advice for transforming medical education on the basis of learning theories and educational research." —Judith L. Bowen, professor of medicine, Oregon Health & Science University




Physicians’ Pathways to Non-Traditional Careers and Leadership Opportunities


Book Description

Increasingly, physicians are leveraging their medical training and expertise to pursue careers in non-traditional arenas. Their goals are diverse: · Explore consulting as a way to improve patient care · Lay the foundation for a career in academic medicine · Provide leadership in healthcare · Strengthen ties between a clinic and the community · Broaden one’s experience as a medical student · As a journalist or writer, open a window onto medicine for non-experts Some physicians will pursue another degree, while others may not, in anticipation of moving into public service, business, education, law, or organized medicine. Their common ground is the desire to enhance their professional fulfillment. Drs. Urman and Ehrenfeld’s book features individual chapters on the wide array of non-traditional careers for physicians, each one written by an outstanding leader in medicine who him- or herself has successfully forged a unique career path. A final chapter brings together fascinating brief profiles – “case studies” – of physicians who have distinguished themselves professionally outside of traditional settings. Suitable for readers at any point in their medical career – practitioners, fellows, residents, and medical students – who want to explore possibilities beyond traditional medical practice, the book also sets out common-sense advice on topics such as work-life balance, mentorship, and the relationship between personality and job satisfaction.