The Faculty Reporting Task Force, co-chaired by Drs. Van Wilson and Don Wesson, addresses the somewhat controversial subject of faculty effort reporting.

In a very tight economy and with budget cuts coming in the near future, the College of Medicine must be able to demonstrate that it is using the state funds it receives in the most effective possible way. The only way the college can accomplish this is to develop a system to account, in a systematic way, for how it uses state funds.

At the November 2010 annual meeting, AAMC President Dr. Daryl Kirch suggested that all medical schools move to implement accountability systems of this type. Given the recent similar events at Texas A&M University, it is only a matter of time until the Board of Regents asks the college to account for how its faculty spend their time and how it uses the dollars it gets.

Thus, we can take the initiative and shape how our reporting system is developed, or we can wait until a system, which does not fit our relatively unique circumstances, is imposed on us. I hope you will agree that the former, and not the later, is a far better strategy for the College of Medicine. The Faculty Reporting Task Force will be broadly representative of the faculty and will draw on the work done at other medical schools across the U.S. to come up with a set of recommendations.