An Academic Research Coach: An Innovative Approach to Increasing Scholarly Productivity in Medicine
BACKGROUND: Academic faculty who devote most of their time to clinical work often struggle to engage in meaningful scholarly work. They may be disadvantaged by limited research training and limited time. Simply providing senior mentors and biostatistical support has limited effectiveness.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to increase productivity in scholarly work of hospitalists and internal medicine physicians by integrating an Academic Research Coach into a robust faculty development program.
DESIGN: This was a pre-post quality improvement evaluation.
SETTING: This was conducted at the University of Washington in faculty across three academic-affiliated hospitals and 10 academic-affiliated clinics.
PARTICIPANTS: Participants were hospitalists and internists on faculty in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Washington.
INTERVENTION: The coach was a 0.50 full time equivalent health services researcher with strong research methods, project implementation, and interpersonal skills. The coach consulted on research, quality improvement, and other scholarship.
MEASUREMENTS: We assessed the number of faculty supported, types of services provided, and numbers of grants, papers, and abstracts submitted and accepted.
RESULTS: The coach consulted with 49 general internal medicine faculty including 30 hospitalists who conducted 63 projects. The coach supported 13 publications, 11 abstracts, four grant submissions, and seven manuscript reviews. Forty-eight faculty in other departments benefited as co-authors.
CONCLUSION: Employing a dedicated health services researcher as part of a faculty development program is an effective way to engage clinically oriented faculty in meaningful scholarship. Key aspects of the program included an accessible and knowledgeable coach and an ongoing marketing strategy.
© 2019 Society of Hospital Medicine
DISCUSSION
The coach program was highly utilized, well regarded, and delivered substantial, tangible, and academic output. We anticipate the coach initiative will continue to be a valuable resource for our Division and could prove to be a valuable model for other institutions seeking to bolster the scholarly work of clinical academicians.
Several lessons emerged through the course of this project. First, we realized it is essential to select a coach who is both knowledgeable and approachable. We found that after meeting the coach, many faculty sought her help who otherwise would not have. An explicit, ongoing marketing strategy with regular contact with faculty at meetings was a key to receiving consult requests.
Second, the lack of a clinical background did not seem to hinder the coach’s ability to coach clinicians. The coach acknowledged her lack of clinical experience and relied on clients to explain the clinical context of projects. We also learned that the coach’s substantial experience with the logistics of research was invaluable. For example, the coach had substantial experience with the IRB process and her pre-reviews of IRB applications made for a short and relatively seamless experience navigating the IRB process. The coach also facilitated collaborations and leveraged existing resources at our institution. For example, for a qualitative research project, the coach helped identify a health services faculty member with this specific expertise, which led to a successful collaboration and publication. Although a more junior coach with less established qualifications may be helpful with research methods and with the research process, our endeavor suggests that having a more highly trained and experienced researcher was extremely valuable. Finally, we learned that for a Division of our size, the 0.50 FTE allotted to the coach is a minimum requirement. The coach spent approximately four hours a week on marketing, attending faculty meetings and conducting brief didactics, two hours per week on administration, and 14 hours per week on consultations. Faculty generally received support soon after their requests, but there were occasional wait times, which may have delayed some projects.
Academic leaders at our institution have noted the success of our coach initiative and have created a demand for coach services. We are exploring funding models that would allow for the expansion of coach services to other departments and divisions. We are in the initial stages of creating an Academic Scholarship Support Core under the supervision of the coach. Within this Core, we envision that various research support services will be triaged to staff with appropriate expertise; for example, a regulatory coordinator would review IRB applications while a master’s level statistician would conduct statistical analyses.
We have also transitioned to a new coach and have continued to experience success with the program. Our initial coach (author C.M.M.) obtained an NIH R01, a foundation grant, and took over a summer program that trains dental faculty in clinical research methods leaving insufficient time for coaching. Our new coach also has a PhD in epidemiology with NIH R01 funding but has more available FTE. Both of our coaches are graduates of our School of Public Health and institutions with such schools may have good access to the expertise needed. Nonclinical PhDs are often almost entirely reliant on grants, and some nongrant support is often attractive to these researchers. Additionally, PhDs who are junior or mid-career faculty that have the needed training are relatively affordable, particularly when the resource is made available to large number of faculty.
A limitation to our assessment of the coach initiative was the lack of pre- and postintervention metrics of scholarly productivity. We cannot definitively say that the Division’s scholarly output has increased because of the coach. Nevertheless, we are confident that the coach’s coaching has enhanced the scholarly work of individual clinicians and provided value to the Division as a whole. The coach program has been a success in our Division. Other institutions facing the challenge of supporting the research efforts of academic clinicians may consider this model as a worthy investment.
