| Statement of the problem. The purpose of this study is to develop a description of American medical school basic science departments and their chairs, and to determine if there is a relationship among certain characteristics of the chairs and their departments regarding extramural research funding. The disciplines of medical school basic science departments are anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, and physiology.;The importance of this study derives from the status of these departments as having responsibility for providing biomedical instruction to the nation's future physicians, and for training over 50% of biomedical science PhDs. The faculty of basic science departments carry out the majority of university-based, biological science research in the United States.;Methods. A researcher-developed survey consisting of 49 questions was distributed to the 557 basic science chairs of departments accredited by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The survey elicited information about the following four dimensions of the departments and the chairs: (1) the academic discipline of the department; (2) the research intensity of the department; (3) the term of office of the chair; and, (4) the inclination of the chair toward his or her own research program or toward administrative responsibilities. Six research questions emanate from the relationships among each of these dimensions.;Results. The survey data were summarized and tabulated. National Institutes of Health data on the funding for each basic science department for the 1994 federal fiscal year were used to determine the dollar amount of funding for each department, per capita. Frequency distributions, means, and analysis of variance were calculated to determine the existence of relationships among the four dimensions.;Conclusions. The results of this study indicate that there are significant similarities among chairs and departments in the five basic science disciplines, and that these chairs hold common goals and objectives regarding their departments and research programs. The majority of chairs intend to maintain their own research programs while leading their departments, but find it difficult to sustain their funding and research productivity. Chairs who are oriented more toward administrative responsibilities than toward their research are more likely to have been in the position ten or more years. |
