ENVIRONMENTAL AND PERSONAL FACTORS IN SECONDARY CAREER CHOICE OF GRADUATES OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS TRAINING PROGRAMS

This study dealt with the area of secondary career choice in a newly emerging discipline of medicine, Medical Informatics (MI). The study attempted to describe the MI training programs, supported by the National Library of Medicine, to determine if there were significant differences between trainees choosing an academic career and those choosing a non-academic career on eight environmental and personal background variables, and to determine if all or some of these variables were useful in discriminating between the two categories of choice.;It would appear that a training program located in a private institution, with the majority of the faculty from the school of medicine, and with a small number of trainees who already had the M.D. or Ph.D. would be most likely to generate the highest proportion of individuals seeking academic positions.;Three variables were sufficient to discriminate between the groups. These were the status of the institution, public or private; the entry degree of the trainee; and the productivity of the training program faculty. Using the discriminant function to classify the trainees, it was possible to correctly classify 75.3% of the academic group and 71.9% of the non-academic group.;From the study, there is now a base line of data that can be used in future studies. Significant variables have been identified. And a function for discriminating has been derived which can be applied to the graduates of current training programs.;Over 60% of the available population of trainees was studied. Of the eight variables studied, four were significant in differentiating the two groups. Private institutions generated more trainees selecting academic positions. Those training programs which had a higher proportion of faculty with appointments in the school of medicine generated more trainees selecting academic positions. The commitment of the institution to MI training was also significant but in the opposite direction from that expected. The entry degree of the trainees was also found to be significant with those trainees entering with a Ph.D. or M.D. more likely to select an academic position.