Letter to the Editor from Malek et al: “Trends in Endocrinology Fellowship Recruitment: Reasons for Concern and Possible Interventions” Free

Romeo et al identify an important problem in the fellowship recruitment pipeline and offer a few recommended interventions (1). The authors correctly note that most newly trained endocrinologists are female and appropriately identify disparities in pay and career advancements as problems that “the medical community at large” has to address. They note the importance of early exposure to endocrinology in medical education, specifically by dynamic, gifted educators. Often educational roles are being fulfilled by clinician educators rather than physician scientists, and the former group is held accountable to clinical productivity.

Since this article is offering possible solutions, we propose to include the important role that professional societies can play in these efforts. Medical schools and hospital systems have been exceedingly slow to recognize teaching achievements by clinician educator faculty, often basing promotion pathways on research, publications, and national reputation (2).

It is in this pathway that professional organizations, notably the Endocrine Society, can take a more prominent role in supporting the fellowship pipeline. According to the author guidelines of The Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, clinical research articles, review articles, or clinical practice guidelines are encouraged for publication. If the Endocrine Society wants to nurture excellence in teaching in medical education, then there is an opportunity to recognize, highlight, and publish manuscripts that address pedagogy or innovations in endocrinology education in medical schools and training programs. These publications, often required in promotion pathways, would further the careers of the primarily female clinician educator endocrinology work force (3, 4). The promotion of clinician educators lags behind tenure-track faculty (2), and if we seek to advance endocrinologists to leadership positions in academic medicine, the force of professional societies will need to be leveraged. This will also allow the opportunity for course and program directors to continuously learn from their peers. As it currently stands, these publications are being placed in niche journals in medical education to a general academic audience.

Some helpful first steps taken by the Endocrine Society include the “endocrine educator” pathway at ENDO 2019, with focused talks on pipeline, professionalism, wellness, innovations in teaching, and education in endocrinology fellowships. This can be mirrored in the organization’s premier journals.

We commend the authors for highlighting the important issues of the fellowship pipeline. We encourage the Endocrine Society to reach out directly to medical educators who are innovating and updating the field of endocrinology to meet the demands of the 21st century both pre-and post-coronavirus (COVID). We also encourage major organizations to demonstrate their commitment to education by including in their flagship journals manuscripts about education and training.

Additional Information

Disclosure Summary: The authors have nothing to disclose.

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