Research hospitals/academic medical centers have a threefold mission of patient care, research and education. The meaning of education is to train students with both clinical and administrative personnel in order to better suit themselves in the health care industry. Health administration programs are proliferating in China and the United States due to the influence of their recent health reform movements. In China, health administration programs are staffed with faculty from clinical medicine and management, mostly from their university afifliated medical centers. However, health administration program faculty in the United States have a diverse set of industry backgrounds and bring an invaluable wealth of experience into the classroom. The authors provide a literature background on the often-followed paths that a person in the U.S. might take while pursuing a full time teaching career in higher education. A health administration faculty typology has been well developed, and concentrating on the following professional roles: a healthcare operator, an academic/educational administrator, a consultant, a clinician and a researcher. Thus, the authors discuss anecdotal data that they have collected on the perceived positives and negatives associated for each type. The authors conclude with providing recommendations to both Chinese and American programs to produce a more collegial and collaborative academic environment.
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