Career development resource: educational leadership in a department of surgery: vice chairs for education.

The growing appreciation of the need to adopt an evidence-based approach to teaching and assessment has led to a demand for faculty who are well versed in best practices in education. Surgeons with interest and expertise in instruction, curriculum development, educational research, and evaluation can have an important impact on the educational mission of a department of surgery. The increased fervor for accountability in education together with the challenges imposed by accreditation agencies and hospitals has made educational leadership responsibilities more time consuming and complex. In response to this, an increasing number of department chairs created Vice Chair for Education positions to support clerkship and program directors and ensure the department's education mission statement is fulfilled.