Attracting, training, and retaining faculty with expertise and experience in medical education is crucial to the success of the academic mission of any institution. Roles and expectations for academic medical educators have evolved with the rapidly expanding healthcare field.1 Assessment of the wide variety of contributions made by educators necessitates a broader recognition of academic efforts as well as improved metrics for their quality and quantity.2 Productivity measures for medical educators currently lack clear definition,3 complicating the traditional processes of appointment, promotion, retention, and tenure, and potentially impeding the academic mission.

Recognition of the unique and broad contributions of medical educators reinforces and upholds their professional identity4, while also enhancing their motivation for new and continuing efforts.4, 5 Rewards to educators in the form of academic advancement can help to stimulate the innovation and improvement of current and future health care practice.6 For medical educators this impact is intersectional, affecting learners, healthcare, and patient outcomes at large. Despite the associated challenges, common standards are necessary “for selecting, presenting, and evaluating evidence of educational contributions for academic promotion”.2, 7, 8 The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) 2006 consensus conference on educational scholarship proposes definitions for five categories of educator activities: teaching, learner assessment, curriculum development, mentoring and advising, and educational leadership and administration. The report indicates that documentation of excellence across all five categories must include quality, quantity, and engagement with the educational community. This engagement may be documented by evidence of a scholarly approach (how the educator’s work is informed by what is known in the field) and educational scholarship (how the educator contributes to knowledge in the field).7

More than fifteen years have passed since the AAMC’s call for standardization,7 however it is unclear how many academic institutions have integrated the recommendations. Our study aims to explore current United States (U.S.) medical school promotion guidelines for medical educators as they relate to the AAMC recommendations.