From John Meyer: RE:

Since we’re trying to engage the students and residents in the practices of EBM and critical review, these salary charts also spawn a few additional questions: (since we’ve not access to the AAMC salary survey, I can’t address these by my own devices)

1) Notable for their absence from UCHC faculty but present in great numbers in other centers are pediatricians, amongst the lowest paid physicians despite their dedication. It raises the broader question of whether this comparison is representative between UCHC and the others in aggregate. To be at all interpretable, one needs to see how the “case-mix” or, here, physician-mix, differs, particularly if primary care (IM/FM/and especially Peds) is poorly represented in contrast to other centers. Or as we might ask the students: ‘is this generalizable?”

2) Similarly locale and cost of living is likely affecting salaries, but the extent to which this can be teased out from the chart is unclear. Speaking as an Upstate-NY-boy, it’s clear it costs a whole lot less to work and live up there; thus the selection of Buffalo, Syracuse, Detroit, Dayton OH, and Cincinnati (with more comparable centers only in Brooklyn, NJ, and Hawaii) may also have some bearing. Could one compare SUNY-Stony Brook as more relevant?

3) Lastly, this is not likely an efficient market, and salaries for public institutions have many concomitants, including tax base and state support perhaps not reflected in a single chart.

John Meyer MD MPH

Section of Occupational/Environmental Medicine