Clinical Faculty Academic Appointments

Policy
Clinical Faculty Appointment Categories
Department of Medicine Requirements for Appointment at the Rank of Assistant Professor 
Department of Medicine Requirements for Appointment at the Rank of Lecturer 
Foreign Trained Physicians
Application Process and Documentation Requirements

Policy

All clinical (MD) academic appointments are governed by the Policy for Clinical Faculty and Procedures Manual for the Policy for Clinical Faculty, available at Faculty of Medicine Clinical Affairs website.

All faculty members’ clinical activities fall under the jurisdiction of any relevant site(s) in which they practice and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO).

Clinical Faculty Appointment Categories

Clinical faculty (MDs) may be appointed full-time, part-time  or as adjunct clinical faculty. An overview of these types of appointments is provided in

Table 1, below.

* Year-end refers to the end of the academic year (June 30). Requests for activity reports will be sent out in April of each year.

**All part-time clinician-teacher appointees are expected to complete training in health professional education within the first three years of appointment. Examples of  health education training are: Master Teacher Program, TLC Program, Stepping Stones Teacher Development Program, Education Scholars Program 

***All faculty members are required to report to their University Department Chair any information, both historical and current, relevant to the clinical academic appointment including, but not limited to: finding of negligence; investigation and/or finding of guilt of a criminal offence, academic misconduct, incompetence or any form of professional misconduct by a court or the CPSO’s Discipline Committee or Fitness to Practice Committee (or its equivalent in any jurisdiction). As required in the Procedures Manual for the Policy for Clinical (MD) Faculty, self-reporting must be made to the University Department Chair within seven working days of receipt of notification or knowledge of such a conviction, finding or investigation. For an investigation by the Discipline Committee or Fitness to Practice Committee (or its equivalent in any jurisdiction), self-reporting must conform to all applicable policies and procedures, including, but not limited to, hospital by-laws and CPSO regulations.

**** For definition of grievance, refer to section 5.3.1 of the Procedures Manual for the Policy for Clinical Faculty.

Department of Medicine Requirements for Appointment at the Rank of Assistant Professor 

The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto requires advanced training AND demonstrated scholarship for initial appointment at the rank of assistant professor or higher.

Advanced Training:

While the details will vary depending on the proposed academic position description (table 2 below), for appointment as an assistant professor the Faculty stipulates one must have a graduate degree or other advanced training, such as in the form of post-residency fellowship, that is relevant to the proposed position. For example, a MSc in Engineering may be relevant to an individual whose area of academic focus is biomedical engineering, but does not ensure that someone hoping to build a career in quality improvement (QI) will be successful.

Demonstrated Scholarship:

Evidence of scholarship ensures that the individual is not only knowledgeable, but can apply this knowledge in the form of one or more of sustained excellence in teaching, creative professional activities and research, as defined below:

Sustained Excellence in Teaching may be demonstrated through a critical mass of: teaching evaluations that provide comparisons against peer teachers; student testimonials; a breadth and depth of teaching, e.g. across different trainee level and/or training environments; and receipt of teaching awards and honours.

Creative Professional Activity (CPA) is a broad term that includes by is not limited to the following types of activities:

• Contributions to the development of professional practices, e.g., guidelines, health policy development, regulatory committees and setting of standards
• Exemplary professional practice, e.g., teaching techniques, educational innovations, curriculum development, models of care innovations (e.g. role of EMR prompts, standardized pathways, pre-printed patient ‘order sets,’ on quality and safety of inpatient care or resident experience); leadership in development of professional practice (e.g. tools to enhance physician communication, professionalism).
• Professional innovation and creative excellence, e.g., patient videos, curriculum innovations, and communications media.

Research Scholarship may be demonstrated through traditional research metrics, e.g., peer reviewed publications and grants, research awards and honours, graduate student teaching and supervision, and other evidence that the research has been conducted has had, or has potential to have, an impact – direct or indirect - on the health of the population. Examples might include: identification of a new target for drug development; development and uptake of clinical practice guidelines; impact on government policy; new models of care with demonstrated improvements in patient outcomes, healthcare costs, and/or the patient experience. Continuing Faculty Appointment Review occurs three to five years from first appointment, irrespective of the initial rank (i.e. lecturer or assistant professor).

Once appointed to the rank of lecturer faculty members have an additional pathway to junior promotion to assistant professor, sustained committment to the academic mission.

* Examples of graduate degrees in education include the MSc-CH - Health Practitioner Teacher Education and OISE MSc

**Examples of  health education training are: Master Teacher Program, TLC Program, Stepping Stones Teacher Development Program, Education Scholars Program

*** Example of a graduate degree in QI is Master’s degree in Quality Improvement & Patient Safety at IHPME.

Department of Medicine Requirements for Appointment at the Rank of Lecturer

A community preceptor or other part-time or adjunct clinical faculty will usually be appointed at the rank of lecturer.

Initial appointment at the rank of lecturer may also be appropriate for full-time clinician-teachers and clinicians in quality and innovation who have relevant advanced training, e.g. a certificate in QI, but require additional time to demonstrate scholarship. Clinician-investigators, clinician-educators and clinician-scientists who have clearly demonstrated scholarship and completed advanced training save for thesis defense may also be considered for initial appointment at the rank of lecturer; a lecturer appointment enables application for peer-review funding as PI. This latter group is then eligible for junior promotion (lecturer to assistant professor) upon successful thesis defense.

Foreign-Trained Physicians:

To be eligible for CPSO academic certificate of registration, foreign-trained physicians must be eligible for clinical full-time or (rarely) clinical part-time appointment at the rank of assistant professor or higher.

Application Process and Documentation Requirements:

The Office of the Chief of Medicine has overall responsibility for the assembly and submission of requests for appointment. Complete application packages must be submitted online via Laserfische. This includes:

• Online Application Form (to be completed and submitted by the Chief of Medicine’s office or equivalent)
• Joint Letter of support from chief of medicine and departmental division director (full-time faculty) or   
• Letter of support from Chief of Medicine (part-time and adjunct faculty) ( * If in private practice, departmental division director signature is sufficient) providing justification for the requested appointment and rank
• Updated Curriculum Vitae
• Demonstration of Teaching Effectiveness e.g. (formal teaching evaluations, teaching awards, student testimonials, is required for appointment of full-time or part-time faculty as clinician-teachers)
• Academic Position Description (required for all appointments) FT and PT appointments, Adjunct Appointments
• Academic Plan (required for all full-time clinical faculty, completed document must be signed and included with the academic position description)
• Academic Activities (required for all part-time clinical faculty, completed document must be signed and included with the academic position description)
• Two Internal Reference Letters and two External Reference Letters (required for ALL full-time faculty and also for part-time and adjunct faculty at the rank of assistant professor or higher)
• A copy of the CPSO  Certificate of Professional Conduct
• Search details (position postings, search committee membership, list of applicants including those short-listed for interview, justification for candidate selection - required for full-time faculty)

Approval: Applications are reviewed by the Department Appointments Committee, which meets monthly. Recommendations from this committee are submitted to the Department Chair for approval. For full-time clinical appointments at the rank of lecturer and for all part-time and adjunct clinical appointments, approval is required from the Dean or Dean’s Delegate. Unless there is a formal search with University representation, full-time clinical academic appointments at the rank of assistant professor or higher must be reviewed by the Faculty Appointments Advisory Committee (FAAC), before being submitted to the Dean for approval.

The process timeline is:

Please contact the Department Academic Appointments Office at dom.academicappts@utoronto.ca with any questions.