The Clear Message at GFA2025: Med School Faculty Affairs Needs a Better Faculty Information System (FIS)

The energy at the the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) Group on Faculty Affairs (GFA) Professional Development Conference in Portland, Oregon this year was clear—and so was the theme: medical schools are hungry for smarter, simpler ways to manage the complexity of faculty data, appointments, workflows, and reviews.

We’ve attended many GFA conferences, but this one felt different. The level of engagement, the specificity of pain-point conversations, and the volume of interest in live demonstrations surpassed any previous event for us.

Here’s what we heard, what we learned, and why we’re more committed than ever to making faculty lifecycle management for medical schools less fragmented, more intuitive, and truly institution-ready.

Medical Schools Are Still Struggling With Their Systems

During hallway conversations, breakout sessions, and booth visits, one pattern kept surfacing: many institutions are still working around systems, rather than with them.

Faculty affairs teams are running critical processes—promotion and tenure, onboarding, CV collection, evaluations—using combinations of spreadsheets, PDFs, legacy platforms, and homegrown workarounds. Here’s some of what attendees shared with us at a glance: 

The Pain Point	The Impact
No unified platform	Data is duplicated, inconsistent, and siloed across systems
Faculty dissatisfaction	Systems are hard to use, not intuitive, or not built for their context
Workflow breakdowns	P&T and credentialing processes are inefficient and error-prone
Reporting challenges	Accreditation and internal reporting are time-consuming and incomplete

The SmartPath Table Was Busy for a Reason

Over the course of the event, we had more inbound demo requests than at any prior GFA or AIR Forum. Leaders were eager to see how SmartPath handles:

• Faculty lifecycle data across academic and clinical appointments
• Workflow support for multi-track, multi-title processes
• CV and biosketch capture without burdening faculty
• Permissions that make sense for complex role structures
• AI-driven data imports that save hours of time

SmartPath’s flexibility—built in collaboration with academic medical centers—wasn’t just interesting. It felt necessary.

What They Said About AI

There was marked interest in our AI-powered CV data import capability. For years, getting faculty information into a system has been a sticking point—and one that drives low adoption.

Our new feature reads CVs or biosketches and automatically maps structured data into the SmartPath system, making it faster and easier to populate faculty profiles, build CVs to spec, and keep information current.

Here’s are the benefits of this new functionality that seemed most appealing: 

• Saves faculty time: No need to copy/paste into dozens of fields
• Reduces admin load: Less chasing down missing data
• Improves data accuracy: Automated mapping, manual review where needed
• Simplifies reporting: Centralized, structured data ready for use

We heard from multiple attendees that this kind of capability could be the tipping point in driving faculty adoption.

A Case in Point: Wake Forest School of Medicine

One of the most impactful moments for us came during a presentation by Nick Smith-Stanley, Associate Vice President and Assistant Dean of Faculty Affairs, at Wake Forest School of Medicine, a SmartPath client.

“SmartPath has given us more than just configurable workflows—it’s given us a partner who understands the complexity and stakes of faculty affairs in a medical school environment. Their team has been instrumental in helping us streamline and strengthen processes that directly impact our faculty’s experience.”

Nick’s remarks underscored what we believe: The tools matter, but so does the team behind them. SmartPath isn’t just a configurable platform—we’re faculty affairs and technology experts who know what it takes to support high-stakes academic processes, particularly in medical schools.

Why Medical Schools Choose SmartPath

Medical schools face distinct challenges that general-purpose systems often don’t support well. Joint appointments, clinical faculty, credentialing, volunteer faculty roles, compliance reviews—it’s a complex web of needs.

SmartPath was built for this context. We support:

Faculty Lifecycle Stages	Onboarding	Appointment	Annual evaluations
Reappointments and promotions	Tenure review	Sabbatical and leave requests	Retirement and offboarding

Powerfully Efficient Workflow Capabilities

• Configurable review paths by track and title
• Role-based permissions and approvals
• Integrated packet creation
• External reviewer coordination
• Letter automation with custom logic

High-Value Data & Reporting Tools

• AI-enabled profile and CV creation
• Structured data views for IR and compliance
• Role-specific dashboards
• Accreditation-ready reporting exports

The combination of technical capability, configuration flexibility, and academic context is what sets SmartPath apart.

Faculty Adoption Depends on Usability

One major takeaway from GFA is this: even when leadership sees the value in a system, faculty adoption is often the biggest hurdle.

We’ve prioritized usability from day one, with:

• Interfaces that are intuitive, not overbuilt
• Personalized experiences depending on role
• Minimal training requirements
• Context-aware logic (e.g., track-specific prompts and packets/dossiers)
• Automated “nudges” and reminders to guide faculty and reviewers

If a platform adds administrative complexity or friction, faculty won’t engage with it. With SmartPath, we’ve worked to make interaction feel like a helpful workflow—not another system to learn.

What’s Next: Our Commitment to the Work of Setting Medical School Faculty Affairs Teams Up to Win

We left GFA with new insights, stronger connections, and a renewed sense of purpose. Conversations with faculty affairs professionals reminded us that while technology is critical, so is partnership.

We don’t outsource implementation. We don’t treat clients like tickets. Our deployments are led by experts like Deb Komorowski, who spent decades inside a top medical school faculty affairs office. That experience shapes every workflow we help configure.

Let’s Talk About What’s Possible for Your Institution

If you’re working with outdated tools, wrestling with rigid systems, or simply looking for a better way to manage faculty lifecycle data—let’s connect.

We’d be glad to show you how SmartPath helps institutions like yours:

• Centralize and streamline faculty processes
• Reduce administrative burden
• Improve data quality and reporting
• Create a better experience for faculty and reviewers

We’re here to help medical schools move forward—with systems that support the complexity of the work and the people who make it happen. And we’re already looking forward to GFA 2026!