Academic/teaching careers in FM

[Jochi1543]

I was wondering if someone can shed some light on getting a professorship appointment in family medicine. Are there lots of appointments that allow you to do part-time clinical work and part-time teaching and/or research? I am not looking for an academia-only position. Is there a demand? Any idea on the salary/benefits? Downsides to having a position like this (besides the obvious downside of being tied to a large urban center)?

 

Thanks.

[astar44]

I'm curious about this as well. If anyone can shed any light on the topic, it'd be much appreciated.

[moo]

Jobs are available. You just have to look hard and be prepared to move. It helps to have a MPH or MHSc as family med departments are always looking for people who have research experience. You can also do a fellowship in research (R3) to boost your chances. Most jobs are part-time clinical, part-time teaching/administrative. Salaries are modest, probably about 150k-180k, definitely not as much as you can make in private practice. The upside though is you don't have to see as many patients as you would in private practice (although you have to do shadow billing), you can spend a lot of time on patients, you get to teach students and residents (they do a lot of the work for you), you can do some research, and you continually learn. The downsides are the relatively lower salary, and that's mainly it. I thought about doing this type of work after doing an R3 year or an MPH but the type of research done in family medicine just doesn't interest me (too much touchy-feeling fluff stuff). For me, I'm more interested in big picture, and doing well-designed hard-core epidemiological studies.

[olecranon]

do you surmise that a lot of your time will involve applying for grants and funding for research?

[Jochi1543]

Thanks, moo. I recently had a research idea and was told to do an MSc if I want to bring it to fruition, but I'm not sure how an MSc would factor into my plans to be a family physician. I don't want to spend 2 years to get a degree that, outside of the specific project I would finish, would be entirely useless. I guess my next stop will be at the family med booth at the residency fair to chat with the PD.

 

On a related note, does the clinician-investigator program even exist for family medicine residents? All I found on my school's PGME website for the CIP concerned Royal College specialties.