Scholarly activities within the AACA: A survey report

✍ Scribed by Mark F. Seifert; Paula C. Hoos; Robert J. Leonard; Sandy C. Marks

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 71 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0897-3806
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1098-2353(1998)11:3<213::aid-ca11>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

The Executive Council of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) at its October 12, 1996 meeting requested a survey be drafted and distributed for the purpose of identifying the spectrum of scholarly activity and professional interests within the membership. An ad hoc committee was charged with developing a survey to meet the criteria. The survey results would be used by the AACA Executive Council for 1) potential restructuring of the Annual Meetings, 2) to acquaint the membership with opportunities for publication of scholarly activities, and 3) to respond proactively to curricular changes in the education of health care professionals. Five hundred and two surveys were mailed to the AACA membership and 155 (31%) were returned. The surveys were analyzed and the findings are presented in this report.

SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS

The survey requested information about the general background, professional activity, publications, and topics of scholarship of the membership. The final two questions concerned the role of Clinical Anatomy in supporting scholarly activities of the membership and what the editors could do to increase the submission rate from AACA members. The data have been analyzed and reported as follows.

GENERAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Age and gender: The mean age of the respondents to this survey was 55 years (range: 27-89 yrs.). Males comprised 86% with a mean age of 56 years (range: 27-89 yrs.), while females represented 14% with a mean age of 49 years (range: 32-67 yrs.).

Academic degree(s): Forty-four percent of the survey respondents held a Ph.D. degree, slightly outnumbering those having an M.D. degree (41%). Approximately 11% reported having two advanced degrees (e.g., M.D./Ph.D., D.D.S./Ph.D., Ph.D./P.T.), 4% indicated their terminal degree as either M.P.T., M.S., or B.S. and one respondent (0.7%) held a D.D.S. degree. †This report was presented to the Executive Council of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists at the 14th Annual Scientific Meeting of the AACA in Honolulu, Hawaii, July 1997.