Scholarly activities of the most productive CLS faculty and schools in the U.S.A.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the research and scholarship of the most productive clinical laboratory science faculty and schools in the United States.

DESIGN

In 2008 a national study involving 106 college and university CLS programs was conducted to determine which faculty members were most productive in research activities. A questionnaire was sent electronically to all faculty (n=448) of 106 NAACLS accredited programs. Data from 275 respondents (61%), from 93 programs (89%) were analyzed.

SETTING

The study took place at The Ohio State University with collaboration from the University of Minnesota.

PARTICIPANTS

Clinical laboratory science faculty within a four-year university or college sponsoring a NAACLS-accredited CLS program, were invited to participate.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

To quantitate faculty scholarly productivity by point assessment, to assess the top 10% of faculty based on funding, publications, abstracts, presentations, books and chapters, and to identify the 15 highest ranking institutions in terms of their collective faculty research contributions.

CONCLUSIONS

The top 10% of clinical laboratory science faculty (n=28) are performing almost 50% of scholarship in the profession, with major contributions in funding garnered and international presentations. These individuals also generally hold a doctorate, are full professors and tenured. Among the 15 highest ranked colleges and universities with CLS programs, and by cumulative faculty contributions, most are classified as research institutions.