Faculty Advisory Council

April 6, 2020
This meeting focused on issues arising from the YSM response to COVID-19. A discussion of childcare needs highlighted challenges to both availability and cost of care, the needs of both frontline clinical staff and other faculty, policies at the Bodel Center, and available resources for subsidizing emergency childcare needs. The challenges and importance of timely communication around the rapidly changing coronavirus virus landscape were discussed. The issue of clinician liability, especially when practicing outside one’s usual area of expertise, was raised but has been largely resolved by a recent executive order from Governor Lamont. The recent code status policy change, and the process that led to it, was discussed. Finally, challenges to research, including lost productivity, funding, and the impact of childcare needs, were discussed. The Dean provided an update on the anticipated impact of the COVID crisis on the school’s finances and on salaries. At the end of the meeting the Dean raised the issue of the medical school’s mission statement, which she hopes to revise over the coming months; there was an initial discussion of what this process would look like, and how the FAC can support it.

March 2, 2020
In this, the second meeting of the FAC with Dean Brown, we reviewed the work of the various FAC committees. Since these Committees have been formed when we have identified issues of concern to the FAC membership and our constituents, this review is an effective way to bring the Dean up to speed on our recent discussions and concerns. The Committees, their membership, and their past work and current goals are summarized in a document that was distributed in advance of the meeting and is appended to these Minutes (this version is slightly revised from the one that was submitted in advance of the March 2 meeting). Summaries were presented by the Faculty Benefits, Diversity, Clinician Well- Being, ARS, Salary Transparency, Off-Site Committee, Mentorship, and Research Committees.

February 3, 2020
This was the first meeting of the full FAC with Dean Nancy Brown. The meeting began with the Dean introducing herself to the FAC, giving a brief biography and discussion of her priorities. We then turned to a discussion of the new Dean’s near-term plans for development and change at the medical school. These focused on the issues of leadership development in the faculty and ways to improve faculty engagement. The Dean envisions a substantial expansion of the Office of Faculty Affairs, with new responsibilities in faculty development. She expressed the general stance that getting the right people in the right positions with the right leadership training is essential to the achievement of all other goals. FAC members raised a number of questions about leadership. Inginia Genao, Chair of the Diversity Committee, discussed the Committee’s work on developing a standard operating procedure for leadership searches; this led to a discussion of search committees, internal vs external searches, how to value less measurable attributes such as character and leadership potential, and term limits.

January 6, 2020
This was the last FAC meeting with Dean Alpern. At the Dean’s suggestion, this meeting consisted of a discussion of challenges facing the medical school in the coming years – as identified by the FAC membership in the first half of the meeting, and as identified by the Dean in the second.

FAC members raised concerns about the experience of clinical faculty as the clinical practice grows, especially issues of wellness and burnout, clinical-academic balance, retention, representation of clinical faculty on key hospital decision-making and quality control bodies. Issues were raised about funding for research, bridge mechanisms to keep research going during funding gaps, the funding and management of research cores, recruitment of the best and brightest into academic medicine. The culture issues raised some years ago by the Barrett Values Survey, and the findings of the three climate committees created in its aftermath, were raised. FAC members noted the importance of getting to know the medical school beyond one’s local environment, and noted that FAC membership is a useful way to achieve this, albeit for a minority.

Dean Alpern acknowledged these as important issues and responded briefly to many of them. He then noted that many solutions cost money, and identified the long-term financial viability of the institution as his biggest concern for the future. The Dean reviewed the funding model that Yale, and similar medical schools, has been forced into over the past decade, in which traditional sources of funding (grants, donations, endowment, tuition, intellectual property) do not come close to covering costs, and the enterprise is dependent on cross-subsidization of the educational and research missions, which lose money, by the clinical practice, which makes it. This leaves us vulnerable to changes in the way that clinical care is paid for in our society. The Dean acknowledged the challenges created by tensions between the demands of running a clinical practice and maintaining an academic lifestyle, and those created by the rapid growth of the clinical practice, which can lead to far-flung faculty not knowing each other or the larger institution well, and feeling alienated. He drew connections between these tensions and the climate challenges addressed by the climate committees (Leadership, Faculty Engagement, Clinician Well-Being).