Reviewing Promotion Dossiers as a Professional Responsibility

Promotion is accompanied by additional responsibility, few more important than serving as a formal external reviewer of promotion dossiers. Promotion and tenure committees rely on external peer review to provide an outside perspective regarding the impact of the candidate's work and how they compare to peers with the same or higher academic rank. What the external reviewer writes and opines impacts the promotion and/or tenure decision. When presented with this opportunity, a faculty member needs to respond to the request, familiarize themselves with the candidate and their promotion and/or tenure criteria, conduct a critical read of the dossier, and write an evaluative letter. This commentary serves as a call for faculty members at the rank of associate and full professor to engage as a reviewer when called upon, provides advice about how to approach an external review and write the letter, and discusses how schools and professional organizations can participate in this process.

Preparing for tenure and promotion at PUI institutions

In this paper, we discuss the importance for faculty to become familiar with the general guidelines for collecting, assembling and preparing a tenure and promotion (T&P) application or dossier at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI) and the critical role that mentoring plays throughout the T&P process. While key elements of the application process such as submission timelines and documentation guidelines are usually outlined in the faculty handbook of the specific institution, many aspects of assembling the dossier are not necessarily detailed in writing anywhere. Instead, there are important elements of the T&P process that typically rely on institutional knowledge and guidance that is often communicated informally. Junior faculty who have limited access to "informal communications" are at a significant disadvantage when they go through the T&P process even when they show accomplishments in teaching effectiveness, research, and service. The problem is especially important for women and underrepresented minority faculty in STEM disciplines that are less well represented among senior faculty in STEM. Senior faculty often serve as informal or formal mentors to their less seasoned colleagues. The goal of this article is to help demystify the T&P process by offering practical suggestions and describing some of the specific materials and steps that are an important part of documenting the development of a faculty member at a PUI.

Regulatory requirements for the registration of generic medicines and format of drug dossiers: procedures in Sri Lanka in comparison with selected regulatory authorities

BACKGROUND

The regulatory requirements for approval of generic medicines and the format of compiling drug dossiers vary among regulatory authorities. The variation is particularly wide between High-income countries (HIC) and lower and middle-income countries (LMIC) with different regulatory frameworks. In this study, document requirements for approval of generic products, approval timelines, and consideration of bioequivalence and/or biowaiver data by Regulatory Authorities (RAs) of 10 selected jurisdictions was studied.

METHODS

The guidelines and procedures from 5 purposively chosen RA of HIC and4 regional RAs relevant for Sri Lanka were compared with the Sri Lankan National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA). Information available in the official websites of the selected RAs, published journal articles and via personal communication was collected in2016. Drug approval timelines achieved in Sri Lanka was obtained from data available from another study.

RESULTS

Common technical dossier (CTD) format of the International Council on Harmonization (ICH) for registration of pharmaceuticals (ICH:CTD) or the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) CTD format (ACTD) was used by all RAs studied except Sri Lanka which use its own dossier format. Nine out of ten RAs studied request BE data or justification for not submitting BE data for generic medicines. Sri Lanka requested BE studies only for antimicrobials, antiepileptic drugs and narrow therapeutic index drugs. Biowaivers are allowed for Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS)-based Class 1drugs in Singapore and India. USA, EMA, Canada and South Korea allowed biowaiver for BCS Class1and Class 3drugs but Sri Lanka does not accept BW at present. Nine NMRAs out of the ten studied reported legislated timelines for approval of generic pharmaceuticals except Sri Lanka.

CONCLUSIONS

Streamlining the drug regulatory systems in LMIC such as Sri Lanka with that of HIC would facilitate an effective drug regulatory system based on reliance on decisions made by stringent regulatory authorities. Findings of this study encourage Sri Lanka to adopt a CTD format for regulatory submission of drug dossiers. Expanding the BE requirement drug list and accepting BCS-based biowaivers for BSC class 1 and 3 drugs during registration of generic drugs when it is scientifically justified is also recommended for Sri Lanka.

[Light sources usable by the plastic surgeon in the absence of photographic studio]

Medical photography is an important part of the medical file and is widely used in medical communication, especially in our discipline. His practice has to be the most standardized and reproducible as possible, which distinguishes it from artistic photography. Photography fix the light reflecting from a subject, so surgeon have to control of the light source in any environment. In the absence of dedicated studio, using external cobra or ring flashes with special diffusers allow the surgeon to have light sources adapted to the different conditions encountered in daily practice.