Samer Al Hadidi on academic moderation

Samer Al Hadidi, Assistant Professor at UAMS Myeloma Center, made the following post on X:

“A thread about academic moderation.

While many may not realize this but there is ongoing fear/avoidance from new graduates to join academia in the field of hematology and medical oncology due to excessive trespassing of personal/family time.

We can/should do better.

• Mentoring is becoming harder.

There is a shift from the mentor role of allowing opportunities to their mentees to more self centric approach.

This is evident by repeated roles of conference presenters,first/last authors, editorial roles,etc.

For example, read here.

• Focus on volume of productivity rather than quality of productivity.

For many, to be competitive may mean you need to publish way more than your time allows.

The quality cannot improve with numbers, quality needs innovation which is harder in academia nowadays.

• Conferences are beyond excessive.

While many including me pick and choose where to go with limited number per year, many academics spend more time in conferences than with patients, mentees, and/or family .

While this is a personal choice ,in academic community, this affects all.

• Lack of sharing.

It is amazing to see how many times even smaller projects get presented by the same presenter at many conferences.

When you are a senior academic, you need less of this and more of sharing. Academic currency include talks- sharing this with mentees help them.

• Less appreciation for patient care.

While academia meant to allow for longer, more centric patients discussions-many in academia only do one day or half a day of clinic a week (if in campus).

Patient care is the center of our work, and should be the center of academia.

• More money centric vision for academic institutions.

In academia, there is focus on clinical productivity with some targets exceeding what is required in private practice.

This is coupled by relatively lower compensation and more requirements for academic productivity.

• Tribalism is harmful.

It is okay to disagree politely and respectfully with each other in regards to decisions/discussions.

Individuals should not be assigned to a tribe where you either agree with me or you disagree with me.

Disagreement is critical for academic progress.

• There is lack of academic moderation.

Having some things done over years in a consistent way without excessiveness while allowing for personal time is rare, though needed.

This attracts more people to be part of the team.

Finally if we want academia to survive/improve we need to be part of the change.

Academia is about taking care of patients in the best way possible while nurturing mentees to be the future while living your life in the best way for people around you (family and friends).”

Source: Samer Al Hadidi/X