what did you do at the U, Daddy?

A dear friend and double classmate of mine (VHS, UofM), Darai, got to asking me about my medical career. We were discussing our dear old teacher and coach who had just turned 90.  I had helped orchestrate a campaign to get him cards and letters for his birthday.  I mentioned that for a teacher, hearing from old students is precious.  It certainly was for Mr. Horn.  But it got Darai asking about my teaching experience, and she was confused about just what duties I had at UofM.  So, I let her know, as follows:

Here’s your academic medicine primer: at U of M in 1984, there were two tracks: “physician-scientist” and “clinical scholar”. The former were the lab hotshots.   They were expected to spend most of their time in their lab, get grants, then see patients maybe one-half day a week in clinic and on the wards for a month.  I was in the latter track.   We were to spend most of our time with patients, but research with them was encouraged (which I did, getting grants and publishing papers along the way).  I had 3-5 half-days in clinic/week (more as I got older) and attended on the wards roughly 3 months out of the year (when I still did everything else).  Attending on the wards meant either looking after a service of rheumatology patients (which went away in the 90s) to advising on hospitalized patients who might have a rheumatic condition.  Any teaching was the side-by-side apprentice style.  I didn’t do any classroom teaching (which I hated) after my first few years.  Both tracks are eligible for tenure (can’t fire me!), which you get by establishing a reputation and publishing papers.  I got mine after 8 years, the max allowed before they ask you to go elsewhere.  In the 90s, they brought along the “straight clinical” track to accommodate all the docs they hired just to see patients.  No other expectations, although you get a little credit for publishing, and you serve from year to year.   Most big academic medical centers follow a similar system.   If you want to get a better idea of what my career comprised, you can check out my CV, which I keep on my blog (1).  I still treasure my CV and keep adding to it.  I just got a paper accepted about “physician burnout”, in which I take a position contrary to the mainstream POV (2).   Most of my post-retirement papers (I’ve published more in retirement that I had in the 19 years before that) is about some of the semi-unique things I did for which I want people not to forget.  I still have several projects on my to-do list, so I expect the entries to accumulate.  Sometimes I see it as settling scores.  A lot of people didn’t care for what I was trying to do, so f*ck them.  Medicine is very screwed up these days and I’m glad I’m out of it.  No sign yet that they’re calling back the greybeards to fix things, but I stand at the ready.

References

1. Ike B.  see vee.  WordPress 9/19/24.  https://theviewfromharbal.com/2024/09/19/see-vee
2. Ike RW.  A Curmudgeon Rheumatologist Looks at “Burnout”.  J Clin Rheumatol (in press)