AIUI, an “Associate Professor” is one who serves at will of employer - NOT Tenured, never will be.
But: My PCP (for a bit yet) works for a UC clinic.
She has been swapped around from campus to campus (not the only one swapped) and is now in brand new massive clinic.
Her business card now reads “Associate Physician”.
Perhaps of additional note: she has been in this office for 2 months. No new transplants in.
Her specialty is “Family Medicine” (if that counts as a “specialty”).
The office area is huge - and has exactly 3 MD*s - the same number of front desk workers.
Think tiny hermit crab in a conch shell. They don’t come close to occupying the space.
Is this essentially, a Part-Time Job?
All MD’s are all called “Assoc. Physician” on their cards
No, an associate professor usually has tenure, and an assistant professor generally is working towards that. The at will position is “adjunct professor.” This is the case in the US, YMMV elsewhere.
Not sure about your question though. Associate or associateD?
I’m not familiar with that term with respect to physicians, so I suspect it is something unique to that organization. Next time you’re there, ask her because I’d be interested to know.
Are you sure the cards don’t say Associate Professor? My wife, an MD, was an Associate Professor at an academic medical practice until recently. I think her card listed her as an Associate Professor of (her specialty) at (her university).
The only two similar titles I am familiar with are: Physicians Assistant , and Nurse Practitioner,
both of which seem to be assistant doctors. I believe that both work under the direction of an MD, but are also able to diagnose and prescribe drugs for treatment.
This is a primary care building. The research facilities are on an entirely different campus, a couple of miles down the road.
On the plus side, she is moving to larger clinics (in terms of sq footage).
In case this term has negative connotations, I did not want to bring it up with anyone in the building - and esp. not her.
**
thelurkinghorror** - thanks, I was thinking of Adjunct.
In Canada it is common for groups of the same specialty in a hospital or town to form Emergency Associates, Anesthesiology Associates, etc. meaning they have signed a group agreement, share fixed costs, possibly employ people ( independent of the hospital), make regulations about meetings, etc.
That doesn’t really matter- my cardiologist has a private practice, unaffiliated with any hospital or medical school ( the practice, that is. He’s an attending at a couple of hospitals) and is also an associate clinical professor at a medical school.
I’m just guessing, but if it’s UC (and a teaching hospital), an associate physician is most likely a clinic doctor – one who is neither a resident or intern, nor on the faculty. She’s just a doctor, practicing medicine.
In academia the names have specific meaning, but outside of that the meanings can vary. Here in Oz there are no assistant professors (we tend to call them tutors, or they are on the junior lecturing scale) associate is a tenured rank second only to full professor, and adjust can apply to any rank and means you have a relationship with the university but are not on the payroll. When I left my old university I was a an adjunct senior lecturer for about ten years. I kept my email address, library rights, was on the university’s list of academics, and I continued to supervise graduate students. But I didn’t get paid.
In medicine you can be sure the names will mean something different. As associate may well simply mean that they have the right to practice there, but do not have a shareholding in the business (in which case they may well be a partner.) They might invoice for their time, or depending upon the rules for insurance and other rebates, they may directly raise a fee, and pay for the use of space. This relationship may be complex. It is also impossible to translate between countries because of the differences in insurance and the manner in which the medical profession are able to raise fees.
I have gotten folks working on Fellowships over at Nephrology (on the teaching/research campus).
In my experience with the system, I have never seen an intern or resident.
Her old business card just has “First Name Last Name MD”. Next line is “Family Practice”.
No label about “class” of “MD” (note: no punctuation).
New cards are reformatted - the names have move from center of card to upper right corner, and it is now styled as “M.D.” with the “Assoc Phy” on the next line.
I have another appt. with Nephrology at the end of the month - will see if the new format is used.
Esp. since the MD is some kind of “Student” (he spent the entire 10 minutes trying to find me on the computer - too ??? to ask my name).
Just once, I’d like to have a Nephrologist manage an appt. all alone, without calling in a REAL doctor.
I gave up trying to wade through “Physician Assistant” and other variations.
It is obviously either “The next big thing” or “Something this group is using for unknown purpose”.
If I see the same on the 20 or so business cards in the Nephrology clinic, I’ll ask the receptionist there
Clicking through to the descriptions, it appears that the the levels are based on experience -“Senior” requires " at least two years of practice exclusive of
internship", “Associate” requires one year and “Assistant” doesn’t require any. I can understand that for internal use - but I don’t understand while those levels would be put on business cards and other materials for public consumption.