Faculty Development
The Faculty Development Leadership Team oversees Department of Pediatrics programs to support the mentoring, career development, and advancement of our faculty. Our goals and responsibilities include:
Goal 1. Enhance the academic success of individual faculty by:
- Holding academic development core curriculum meetings
- Holding Peer-to-Peer Pop-Up Sessions
- Implementing PQUAD: Positive Peer Pressured Productivity (see below)
- Hiring and retaining faculty who are underrepresented in medicine (UIM)
- Promoting women to the rank of professor by identifying senior women associate professors and providing promotion mentoring and support
PQUAD: Positive Peer Pressured Productivity
PQUAD stands for Positive Peer Pressured Productivity. It is a proven dual-incentive model to leverage the power of positive peer pressure to increase the academic productivity of a group through transparency and gamification.
What are the two incentives?
The first incentive is awareness of your peers’ work. PQUAD.org allows you to see a board of the recent submissions and acceptances of your institution’s colleagues' academic work. This increased transparency and awareness of the work of your direct peers can lead to new opportunities for peer mentorship, increased motivation, and formation of new collaborations.
The second incentive is a weighted lottery. Points are awarded at various levels based on the type of academic submission. These points translate into lottery tickets for cash prizes awarded at intervals determined by your institution. The more points you have, the more chances you have to win.
Unlike traditional incentive models which reward only the top performers and do little to motivate those who are less productive, the element of chance allows even someone with one abstract submission a chance to win the drawing, albeit a proportionally smaller chance.
How are points determined?
Point values are set before contests with escalating points based on various categories:
- 1 point: Abstract submissions
- 2 points: Poster acceptance OR rejected manuscript resubmission
- 3 points: Oral presentation acceptance OR workshop acceptance
- 4 points: New manuscript submission OR new grant submission
- 6 points: Manuscript acceptance OR grant acceptance
What happens if I win a contest?
As the points translate into raffle tickets, the more points you have the greater chance you have of winning one of the drawings. Every six months, a drawing is held for cash prizes.
Does PQUAD work?
In the initial pilot in the Division of Hospital Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, fifteen hospitalists participated and saw gains in nearly all categories of submission/acceptance compared to the prior year. You can read the full PQUAD article in Academic Pediatrics.
What can I see on my personal page?
You’ll be able to see your points for the current contest in the upper right portion of the screen. You can also:
- Input current entries to add to your point score.
- See your all-time PQUAD submissions to track progress and simplify end-of-year academic reviews (with the option to download an Excel file).
- See leaderboards for the current contest and all-time rankings for your institution.
Who is shown on the leaderboards?
The goal of PQUAD is to increase transparency and collaboration through awareness of peers’ work. The leaderboards for faculty contests default to show only the top 50% of point totals to avoid potential embarrassment for those with minimal entries. In resident/student contests, where work is often above the expectations of the program, all residents with positive points are showcased.
How do I log my submissions?
You will need to register an account at PQUAD.org with your UMN email address. Once registered, you can input academic submissions or notifications of acceptances, download a spreadsheet of your past submissions, track your personal score, and review the submissions of your peers.
Who can participate?
Currently, the PQUAD initiative is for Assistant Professors only. Pediatric residents and fellows also participate in their own specific PQUAD initiatives.
Goal 2. Improve faculty engagement, satisfaction, and collaboration by:
- Including time for small group discussion in development meetings, as meeting attendees have indicated they value this opportunity to connect with peers
- Conducting a faculty burnout survey annually for at least 3 years to assess changes
- Instituting home dinner gatherings for assistant and associate professors with department leadership
- Developing a group of interested individuals to start one or more book clubs at the assistant and/or associate professor level
Goal 3. Develop greater faculty effectiveness in the areas of mentoring, research, and education by:
- Implementing the Department of Pediatrics Mentoring Plan
- Holding trainings on known areas of need for MDs during development meetings
- Reviewing individual faculty members and their needs for academic mentoring
Goal 4. Develop a cadre of future leaders by:
- Sending at least 4 faculty to national leadership workshops
- Arranging formal facilitator training for assistant and associate professor leaders of the small groups at development meetings
- Holding at least one plenary lecture for associate professor development meetings on the topic of leadership, and ensuring that at least half of development meetings for both assistant and associate professors will have a workshop with a leadership focus
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Vice Chair of Faculty Development
Michael Pitt, MD
Vice Chair of Faculty Development, Associate Residency Program Director, Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Fellowship Program Director, Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine, Department of Pediatrics