Mentoring in internal medicine.

Mentoring is a relationship aimed at fostering the development of the less experienced person. The internal medicine community has recently recognized the importance of this relationship in the advancement of careers in the profession. Preliminary evidence points to the importance of mentoring in achieving the mentee's goals without much suggestion that it could be harmful. It can be particularly helpful to women and minority junior faculty. We encourage academic institutions to help forge these relationships by developing their own formal systems of mentoring and to evaluate and report their efforts.