AC Guidelines for Promotion | Faculty Life & Professional Development | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

The major criteria for promotion on the Academic Clinician Track are excellence in clinical care, teaching, sustained professionalism, and in the candidate’s selected area of concentration.

Summary of Guidelines

Promotion to Associate Professor

You are eligible to be recommended for promotion to the rank of Associate Professor after 2 successful reappointment cycles, and thus promotion will typically occur between years 7 and 10. To be promoted, you will need to document significant contributions in your chosen Area of Concentration, which may be clinical, education service and leadership, community service, quality and safety, health policy, global health, etc. You also must be able to demonstrate you have attained recognition at your personal primary site of practice within the Penn Medicine Community (HUP, PPMC, CHOP, VA etc) as a superior clinician and teacher.

Promotion to Professor

For promotion to the rank of Professor, you must be able to show evidence that you have gained recognition beyond your personal primary practice location as a superior clinician and teacher, that you have made impactful contributions in your Area of Concentration, and that you have exhibited sustained professionalism.

Print-and-Go Guidelines

Promotion on AC Track, Slide Deck, Jim Callahan, MD, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Chair of AC Advisory Committee

Building Your Area of Concentration, Slide Deck, Slide Deck: Jim Callahan, MD, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Chair of AC Advisory Committee

For Promotion to Associate Professor

Ongoing board certification or equivalent, if applicable
Level of clinical effort necessary to maintain clinical competence, generally, a minimum of 20% clinical effort
Minimal founded peer, patient and staff concerns
Absence of active remediation plan for clinical skills
Assessment of clinical performance will reflect review of the following, as appropriate and available:
- Patient evaluations using Penn Medicine or CHOP Provider satisfaction tool results
- Peer References from seven (7) self-selected peers who are at or above the proposed academic rank
- Clinical evaluations (see your faculty coordinator for process)

Additional Potential Metrics of Clinical Excellence

Service on committees in area of clinical expertise, such as
- developing guidelines and policies for clinical management
- evaluating clinical programs
- developing educational products, such as curricula, assessment tools or programs, policy statements, or technologies
Leadership roles in professional organizations related to clinical expertise, including leadership roles in courses or programs
Invitations to share expertise through invited talks, book chapters, clinical reviews
Awards for contributions/innovation related to clinical expertise
Contribution to the development of innovative approaches to diagnosis/treatment/prevention of disease, applications of technologies and/or models of care delivery that influence care
Engagement/collaboration in clinical trials
Local clinical leadership roles

For Promotion to Professor

All of the above applies, with the following supplemental metrics:

Evidence that the candidate has attained recognition outside their primary practice location as a superior clinician
Book chapters, clinical reviews related to area of clinical expertise
Peer reviewed recognition by specialty/subspecialty society at the master's level or equivalent level of accomplishment

A major role of PSOM faculty is the dissemination of knowledge through teaching. At time of evaluation, your teaching data should reflect the following metrics.

Possible Metrics for High Quality Engagement

Lectures/Facilitated Learning Activities

Courses, professional development programs, seminars, grand rounds
Innovation in teaching methods/novel application of existing methods
Trainee evaluations
External evaluations

Learn about how to improve your Lecturing and Small Group Facilitation.

Clinical Teaching

Teaching in local clinical skills courses
Evaluation of local courses for which the candidate was a leader
Trainee evaluations

Learn about how to improve your Clinical Teaching.

Longitudinal Mentorship

# of trainees upon whom the candidate had a major influence

Learn how to improve your Mentoring Skills.

Supervised Scholarship with Trainees

Involvement in local mentoring programs
Awards for local teaching or mentoring

Learn how to improve your Supervision Skills

Additional Metrics

No evaluated domain (Lectures/Facilitated Learning Activities, Clinical teaching) with ratings of 0 or 1 and
Meets the minimum 100 credits of teaching/year as defined by PSOM and
50% of the teaching occurs within the Penn Medicine Community

Additional Metrics Specific to Promotion to Associate Professor

High quality engagement (see above) in primary teaching domain (Lectures/Facilitated Learning Activities, Clinical teaching, Supervised Scholarship, Longitudinal Mentorship, or Educational Service and Leadership)

Additional Metrics Specific to Promotion to Professor

High quality engagement (see above) and demonstrated excellence in primary teaching domain. Supportive documentation may include centrally collected data, robust and sustained list of mentees and/or scholarship, and/or longstanding commitment to education and leadership.

Learn more about Teaching Evaluations and how to meet Teaching Credit Expectations.

For Associate Professor

Candidates for promotion will have identified an Area of Concentration (AOC) that will be evaluated as part of the promotions process. AOCs represent a depth and focus chosen by the individual. It can be clinical or nonclinical, such as education service and leadership, community service, quality and safety, health equity, health policy, global health, diversity and inclusion etc. Faculty must declare an AOC at time of second reappointment.

Metrics for Success

The following metrics can be applied to any concentration:

Invitations to speak
Leadership roles
Service on committees:
- Developing guidelines and policies
- Evaluating programs
Development of innovative approaches to area of concentration, including the application of technologies, models of delivery that influence that area at least beyond the primary practice site, such as a clinical care models, practice guidelines, an innovative application of an existing technology, education innovation etc.
Service on editorial boards
Awards for teaching or mentoring
Engagement in clinical trials

For Professor

For promotion to Professor, in addition to those metrics listed above, there must be evidence that the candidate has attained recognition at least outside their primary practice site in their Area of Concentration. This recognition may take the following forms:

Development of innovative approaches to area of concentration, including the application of technologies and/or models of delivery that influence that area at least regionally such as a clinical care models, practice guidelines, innovative application of an existing technology, education innovation etc.
Awards for contributions and/or innovation
Contributions to scholarly products such as publications recognized as authoritative, editor of textbooks
Contributions to local clinical research efforts or clinical trials
Leadership of faculty development in area of expertise

Professionalism is defined as exhibiting professional behavior in all aspects of one’s work, including

showing respect for patients, colleagues, staff, and learners of all levels, without belittlement or public humiliation
evidence of continuous learning
the encouragement of questions and debate as well as tolerance of diverse viewpoints
the recognition and management of personal biases and prejudices

For promotion to Associate Professor or Professor, the department chair must include an attestation of professionalism in his/her recommendation letter for the candidate. Required elements: