Academic physicians at Stanford’s School of Medicine designed a study to better understand how academic physicians think about and experience success in their careers, with a focus on examining the facilitators and barriers to professional development that may vary by gender. In this study, 25 academic physicians at a California university were given a brief survey and qualitatively interviewed about how they experience professional success.
Facente Consulting was hired to coordinate and track participant recruitment and incentives, design the qualitative interview guide, conduct in-person and phone interviews, analyze the interview and survey data, and contribute to the writing of a manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Study findings highlighted gender differences in definitions of and experience of “success” at work, and provided the university with information they needed to better support academic physicians, ranging from junior academic medical faculty to seasoned academic physicians in leadership roles.