Thoughts on becoming adjunct faculty?

[thesauce]

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I'm curious what your thoughts are about a private practice doc becoming an adjunct faculty to a nearby academic medical center or university? How does one go about doing this? What are the requirements/commitments? What are the benefits?

 

[BobbyHeenan]

I can't answer very definitively, but I did interview at a couple of these types of positions (they're becoming more common as academic centers buy up more satellite offices). Surely someone that works in this position could give better answers, but here are some thoughts I had.

These positions can vary wildly from pretty much like an academic job (protected day or so for clinical research, possible resident coverage, etc) to pretty much like private practice just with a university logo on your white coat. Some general things off the top of my head I picked up from my limited interview experience...

• Advantages:
  • lots of access to enrollment on clinical trials from the mother ship academic center
  • a nice built-in referral line from people going to the mother ship for surgery/chemo but wanting their XRT closer to home; thus, you often get to collaborate and share patients with very competent specialists at a major academic center, even if you're not working in the same building or city. With this referral line and collaboration, it seemed that in some ways you may be insulated from some volume pressures or swings seen in private practice
  • access to remote conferencing for tumor boards and didactic sessions/lectures
  • if you're not getting residents or academic days, the pay is generally a bit higher than standard academic salaries
  • more autonomy or say-so on how the clinic runs than that at the mother ship with 10 rad oncs
  • No stress of having to do your own billing
  • Coverage or collaboration with other really smart rad oncs in your department
• Disadvantages
  • in some situations, it seemed to me to be a private practice job with an academic label on my white coat...but with pay closer to academic than private practice. For example, if I was billing out professional fees my pay would have been significantly more than the salary from the academic center
  • often these satellite centers are not in desirable locations - may be up to an hour or more from the main city
  • if you're inclined to want to do more academic work, it really seems that being physically present at the main center would be more advantageous.

As for qualifications/requirements...the interviews and requirements seemed more focused on private practice appeal than that of my more traditional academic interviews for faculty positions at the main center. So being affable, able to work efficiently in the clinic, interest in enrolling in clinical trials, and having a broad range of skills/knowledge seemed valued over that of a main site associate professor interview where you're talking about long term research goals, subsite interest, publications, etc.

 

[seper]

I've been adjunct in the past. IMHO, any kind of academic duties/regalia is a huge plus for RadOnc career.