Evaluation of the promotion criteria in an academic medical centre in Singapore.

Introduction: Academic medical centres (AMCs) have the tripartite mission of performing research to advance healthcare delivery, educating future clinicians and providing healthcare services. This study investigates the criteria associated with being promoted in a Singaporean AMC.

Methods: Using a dataset of 255 candidates for promotion at the studied AMC, we employ logistic regression to determine if these factors are associated with the likelihood of promotion. Further, we use interaction effects to test if the relationship between the H-index and likelihood of promotion differs across the academic levels of the candidates.

Results: The logistic regression results based on the best of our three tested models suggest that the H-index is positively associated with promotion for those applying to become clinical associate professors (OR=1.43, p=0.01). Moreover, candidates who provide well-developed education portfolios (OR=3.61, p=0.02) and who have held service/leadership roles (OR=6.72, p<0.001) are more likely to be promoted.

Conclusions: This study affirms the correlation between promotion and the advancement criteria outlined by the AMC. This is important for transparency and trust between the AMC and its faculty in their applications for promotion and success in an academic career. Further, our study is one of the few empirical studies linking promotion criteria to promotion outcomes.