A disagreement about the role that research should play in the Kansas University School of Medicine is one of the reasons for the resignation of the chairwoman of the school’s biggest department, faculty members say.

Susan Pingleton, who oversees 110 faculty members as chairwoman of the department of internal medicine, announced this week that she would step down at the end of June. She has clashed in recent months with the medical school’s dean, Barbara Atkinson, who wants the department to have a greater emphasis on research, according to interviews with two longtime faculty members.

The faculty members, who spoke to the Journal-World only on the condition that their names not be used, say they worry the pursuit of research comes at the expense of two other priorities: caring for patients and training doctors.

“In the last couple of years, the dean has really been cutting the legs of education and patient care to strengthen research,” one faculty member said.

“Some of us feel that (Atkinson) doesn’t fully understand or appreciate clinical excellence or clinical teaching,” the other faculty member said. “Some of us feel that the dean’s viewpoint might be more appropriate to an Eastern, research-oriented medical school instead of a Midwestern, state-supported medical school.”

The two said that in the past three years, the money the internal medicine department gets from state funds for teaching has been cut between 20 and 30 percent. In Atkinson’s view, they said, the department’s “clinical” programs – essentially those that involve caring for patients – should pay for themselves.

Asked to respond to that statement, a spokeswoman for the KU Medical Center’s administration said the internal medicine department received an overall budget cut of 6 percent a few years ago, amounting to about $250,000, but that the school has redirected $19 million into the department’s budget in the past three years.

The faculty members said that about six months ago, Pingleton was “essentially fired” as chairwoman of the department of internal medicine.

“The main charge of the dean was that Sue was not leading the department to do enough research,” one of the faculty members said.

But the department’s faculty members gathered for a meeting where 95 percent of those who voted expressed support for Pingleton, they said.

“When this happened, the dean backed off on her threat to fire her,” one of the faculty members said. “Sue’s frustration has reached a point that she feels she can’t work with her, and maybe the best thing for the department of medicine is for her to get out of the way.”

Pingleton, who has been chairwoman of the department for the past five years, declined comment for this article. Atkinson, the medical school dean, sent out a statement Friday that contained nothing but kind words for Pingleton.

“For the past five years under Sue’s collegial and professional leadership, the Department of Internal Medicine has increased the size of its faculty, exceeded educational responsibilities, provided quality care to patients, and expanded its research profile,” Atkinson’s statement said.

The resignation comes as Atkinson works to finalize a controversial plan that would steer some KU medical programs to Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., instead of just having them at KU Hospital in Kansas City, Kan.

A group of Kansas City donors and businesses have promised $150 million for the School of Medicine, but only if the Saint Luke’s deal goes through. KU Hospital also made a pledge of $400 million to KUMC that was rejected because some considered there were too many strings attached.

The merger has been divisive at the medical school because some fear the move will weaken KU Hospital and the medical school’s teaching and patient-care programs. Pingleton is seen as an ally of KU Hospital President/CEO Irene Cumming, who is at odds with Atkinson about the affiliation plans.

“Irene and Sue work very closely together,” said Lynwood Yarbrough, a KU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. “That may have been a contributing factor. I don’t know.”