Full-Time Faculty

Full time faculty are those who devote their primary activities to academic pursuits, which include teaching, research, and the delivery of health services. Full-time faculty may participate in certain other academic-related activities (as detailed below), but only to the extent that these activities do not interfere with their primary academic responsibilities to the institution.

Full-time faculty may not accept an appointment or other position at any other educational, medical, or scientific institution (school of medicine, hospital, research organization, college, or university) unless prior written approval has been granted by the Dean.

Full-time faculty may not enter into an agreement to act as a private individual in a consultative or other financial arrangement with an affiliate of the School, Health System or its member hospitals, or serve as a member of an advisory board of an affiliate of the School, Health System or its member hospitals and retain income from such arrangements.

Full-time faculty may not be employed by or hold any other paid or unpaid position in a scientific or medically related business, foundation, supporting entity, or other organization or other institution except as provided in the Policy on Financial Relationships with Outside Entities in this Chapter, or unless prior written approval has been granted by the Dean. (See also Policy on Business Conflicts of Interest. The Dean's approval will not be required for those appointments or positions that are traditionally held by full time faculty at other institutions such as "adjunct", "lecturer", or "visiting" appointments.

The base salary of full-time faculty may not exceed established institutional guidelines for specific academic ranks. Financial obligation to full-time untenured faculty hired prior to July 1, 2011 and to all full-time tenured faculty is limited to the minimum rate for rank established by the School of Medicine. In the event that employment ends for an untenured full-time faculty member hired July 1, 2011 or later, other resource support will also cease, but the individual may retain the faculty title until the end of the term of appointment.

Updated 9/1/16

See also Faculty Compensation Policy

Full-time faculty may retain income that derives from participation in such non-patient related professional activities as:

1. honoraria for lectures;
2. visiting professorships;
3. royalties from books, prizes, editorships;
4. per diem payments for government consultantships, functioning as a board examiner;
5. expert opinion in litigation procedures (see Policy on Financial Relationships with Outside Entities in this Chapter for the detailed, specific requirements that must be met prior to entry into such arrangements);
6. consultative arrangements with, and service on advisory boards of extramural agencies (see Policy on Financial Relationships with Outside Entities in this Chapter for the detailed, specific requirements that must be met prior to entry into such arrangements).

Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice is the faculty practice program of the School of Medicine. Its primary purpose is to foster and support full-time faculty practice activities, thereby facilitating the recruitment and retention of excellent full-time faculty; enriching the training opportunities available to Mount Sinai's house staff, fellows and students; furthering Mount Sinai's clinical research programs; and promoting high quality patient care.

Rules and Procedures governing participation in Mount Sinai Doctors are applicable to all faculty participants. Income generated by full-time clinical faculty for professional services (fee for service) is deposited into discrete accounts maintained in the Financial Division of the School of Medicine. Disbursements from these accounts are made in accordance with established guidelines governing participation in Mount Sinai Doctors. Copies of governance documents and other relevant material pertaining to Mount Sinai Doctors are available from the Mount Sinai Doctors Administration Office.

Full-time faculty paid by Mount Sinai to provide clinical care are required to participate in the Clinically Integrated Network of Mount Sinai Health Partners IPA, LLC (the Independent Practice Association of the Mount Sinai Health System).

Updated December 2016

An outside entity is defined in this section as any entity other than Icahn School of Medicine and its affiliated institutions.¹

A faculty member may enter into an agreement to act as a private individual in a consultative or other financial arrangement with an outside entity, or serve as a member of an advisory board of an outside entity or as an expert witness, and retain all income that derives from such arrangements providing that the following provisions are met ²:

1. All arrangements involving external activities of any kind with an outside entity must be set forth in a written agreement. The agreement must be submitted to the Department Chair for review and approval, accompanied by a written Attestation of Compliance with Institutional Policies for Relationship with Outside Entities (“Attestation Form”) by the faculty member that he or she has read this institutional policy on financial arrangements with outside entities, and that the proposed arrangement complies with this policy. The Chair is also responsible for evaluating any potential conflicts of commitment. The written attestation must also disclose any conflict of interest and identify intellectual property provisions in the agreement. Chairs must obtain direct approval from the Dean before entering into arrangements with outside entities. Chairs are encouraged to seek guidance from the Office of Industry Engagement and Conflict of Interest.
2. The arrangement does not encompass situations in which the faculty member functions directly or indirectly as a practitioner of medicine, including telemedicine, or as an employee of a third party, including functioning as the principal investigator of a research project or as the director of a research effort of the third party; such arrangements are governed by separate institutional policies. In addition, the arrangement should never involve product or company endorsements. Please refer to the COI Website for additional examples of permissible and non-permissible activities.
3. Any arrangement that involves the faculty member serving in a Board of Director or Senior Executive Leadership Role of an external company is prohibited without prior written approval from the Dean or his/her delegate. Please refer to the Guidelines and Process for Faculty Requesting Board of Directors/C-Suite Positions for Outside Entities.
4. Any arrangement that involves faculty requests for a personal consulting agreement (whether or not direct compensation is received) with an early stage, company in which they have a personal financial interest (e.g. - licensed intellectual property, founder/co-founder, or equity ownership greater than de minimus) requires Faculty Business Conflicts Committee (FBCC) approval.  Please refer to the Guidelines for Founders and/or Equity Owners Requesting Personal Consulting Agreements with Start-up Companies.
5. The remuneration must be fair market value for the services actually performed and should be based on a fixed fee methodology.
6. Any Academic Research Organization (ARO) Agreements where faculty compensation is directed to the institution rather than as personal compensation must be submitted to the Office of Industry Engagement and Conflicts of Interest (“COI Office”) and negotiated through the ISMMS Financial Administration of Clinical Trials Services (FACTS) Office.  Please refer to the ARO Guidance Document, which covers both comprehensive and limited ARO agreements.
7. The faculty member must be in compliance with all institutional policies, including those on Conflicts of Interest, Use of Mount Sinai name, Mount Sinai Insider Non-Trading Policy, and Intellectual Property/Patents, and Speakers Bureaus.
8. The arrangement may not take precedence over or conflict with any responsibilities or requirements made on the faculty member by the School of Medicine.
9. The aggregate number of days allocated to financial arrangements with outside entities, including expert witness or medicolegal consultant arrangements, may not exceed fifty-two (52) per school year (July 1 - June 30).  Personal consulting arrangements are not an absolute right, and department chairs retain discretion over the number of days any individual faculty can engage in outside consulting activities based on institutional and other departmental needs.  All continuing financial arrangements, in which the commitment extends beyond one year, must be reviewed annually.
10. When a paid activity requires less than a full day of effort, time devoted to the activity will be calculated using a formula in which 10 hours equal one day. For example, five hours of consulting are equivalent to 1/2 day and 100 total hours consulting to a company in a year are equivalent to 10 days. Travel hours must be included in the time away calculation if the activity takes place during hours in which the faculty member would otherwise be conducting School business. Travel on weekends and holidays can be excluded from the calculation.
11. With the exception of the use of the library facilities of Icahn School of Medicine and the de minimis use of the individual's own office and personal computer, no facilities or personnel of Icahn School of Medicine may be used in the performance of the outside arrangement.
12. Some affiliates of Icahn School of Medicine may have rules that restrict a faculty member's right to enter into arrangements with outside entities; faculty are required to check the policy at their particular institution. Faculty must comply with policies at Mount Sinai and the affiliate institution.
13. Chairs will submit a copy of each signed attestation form for an approved arrangement to the COI Office for inclusion in the compliance database.
14. In addition to the Chair’s approval (Attestation Form), the submitted agreement must be in writing and include a clearly defined scope of work. The Uniform Provisions for Consulting must be incorporated into all proposed consulting agreements and take precedence over any conflicting provision. These Uniform Provisions for Consulting reinforce Mount Sinai institutional policies (including intellectual property provisions, by which both the faculty member and the company must abide. It is required by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) that these Uniform Provisions for Consulting be attached to any written agreement that will cover consulting services provided by Mount Sinai faculty or staff (“Consultant”) for an outside entity, and must be signed by both parties and submitted to the COI Office prior to participating in the proposed activities.
15. Faculty must update their COI Disclosure Profile (electronically via Huron) each time that a new relationship is approved; payment amounts must be included in the disclosure.
16. All income or compensation in whatever form will be independent of any compensation arrangements that the faculty member has with Icahn School of Medicine. Insofar as a faculty member will act as a private individual in an agreement with an extramural entity, all income that derives from the arrangement must be paid directly to the faculty member.
17. Insofar as a faculty member will act as a private individual in an arrangement with an extramural entity, such agreement is outside the scope of employment as a faculty member of Icahn School of Medicine, and therefore the faculty member will be solely responsible for his/her actions and any litigation that may arise. Icahn School of Medicine will not be liable for any actions of the individual or any litigation that may arise as a result of the consultative arrangement with the extramural agency. The faculty member will so inform the extramural entity.

Footnotes

Leaves of absence for scholarly and educational purposes may be granted to eligible faculty to increase their knowledge and scientific achievements and thereby enhance the faculty members' value to Icahn School of Medicine as teachers and scholars. Each sabbatical leave may be granted for a period of up to twelve months.

Eligibility Requirements:

1. Full-time Associate Professors and Professors who are employed by Icahn School of Medicine or its affiliates will be eligible for sabbatical leave.
   
   
2. Eligible faculty must be employed by Icahn School of Medicine or its affiliates for an aggregate of at least six years of full-time service before an initial sabbatical leave may be taken. Thereafter, faculty will be eligible for additional sabbatical leaves after each six years of full-time employment at Icahn School of Medicine.
   
   
3. Sabbatical leave will not be available to faculty whose appointments are terminal or to faculty who plan to retire at the termination of the leave.

Application for Sabbatical Leave:

1. The faculty member must submit a written request for sabbatical leave to the Department Chair or Institute Director at least six months in advance of the leave. If the faculty member has explicit responsibilities in and/or receives financial or program support from a secondary academic department and/ormultidisciplinary institute, the request must also be made to to the secondary Department Chair and/or the relevant Institute Director. The application must provide the name of the sponsor, institution and/or laboratory in which the sabbatical period will be spent, the duration and specific months of the leave, and a proposal that delineates the goals and scholarly activities that will be undertaken during the leave. Extramural grant support for salary, if any, during the sabbatical should also be identified in the application.
   
   
2. If the Chair and, if applicable, relevant secondary Chair and/or Institute Director, approves the application, then the approvers must submit the faculty member’s application to the Dean along with an accompanying letter that supports the scholarly value of the sabbatical, indicates the potential benefit to Icahn School of Medicine, and provides plans for covering the academic and clinical responsibilities of the faculty member during his/her absence without increasing the total financial burden of the Department. The letter must also contain a statement confirming that the sabbatical leave will not incur financial costs for the School or department(s).

Approval of Sabbatical Leave:

1. The Dean will grant final approval for sabbatical leave. Approval will be based on a review of the application, the supporting letter of the Chair and, if relevant, the Director, and the academic requirements of the institution.
   
   
2. The Dean may postpone a faculty member's sabbatical leave for up to one year. This decision will be based on the total number of faculty requesting sabbatical leave in any one year, the need to maintain an equitable distribution of faculty granted leave amongst the various Departments and Institutes in any one year, and the availability of funds.

Salary during Sabbatical Leave:

1. Faculty taking sabbaticals of up to six months will receive their full bi-weekly base salary for the duration of the sabbatical.
   
   
2. Faculty taking sabbaticals greater than six months will receive a total sabbatical salary equal to six months annual base salary for the duration of the sabbatical. The salary can be paid on a schedule agreed upon in advance by the faculty member and the Chair(s) and, if relevant, Director.

Benefits during Sabbatical Leave:

1. Mount Sinai will continue to provide the faculty member with his/her usual benefit coverage for the full length of the sabbatical. However, the faculty member must pay his/her current cost share each pay period.
   
   
2. Employer contributions to the Tax Sheltered Annuity plan are tied to actual salary payments for each pay period during the sabbatical.

Responsibilities of Faculty:

1. Arrangements must be made with the Department Chairperson  and, if relevant, secondary Chair and/or Institute Director, to ensure that the faculty member's academic duties and clinical responsibilities are fulfilled during the period of the sabbatical leave so that educational programs and other responsibilities are not disrupted.
   
   
2. Upon completion of sabbatical leave a written report must be submitted to the Department Chairperson and, if applicable, secondary Chair and/or Institute Director and Dean that summarizes the faculty member's activities during the leave.

Faculty with Term Appointments:

For eligible faculty who hold an appointment of defined term (e.g., five years) the period of sabbatical leave will be counted as part of the accumulated time spent in that term appointment.

Updated May 2017