Technical efficiency of Shiraz school of medicine in research and education domains: a data envelopment analysis

Introduction: Efficiency evaluation of universities and facultiesis one of the tools that help managers to identify the departments’strengths and weakness. The main objective of the presentresearch was to measure and compare the technical efficiency ofShiraz school of medicine departments using Data EnvelopmentAnalysis (DEA) technique.Methods: This cross-sectional and retrospective study wasperformed on clinical and non-clinical departments in researchand education domains over the period of 2006 to 2011. Differentinputs and outputs were considered for research and educationaldomain separately. Efficiency was measured based on theobserved optimal performance.Results: Findings showed that pathology and anatomydepartments achieved the score of 100 in technical efficiency ineducation during 2006 to 2011. During this period, parasitology,psychiatric and pediatrics department’s achieved the score of100 for technical efficiency in research domain. The lowestmean of relative educational efficiency belonged to orthopedicdepartment; as to relative research efficiency, the lowest meanwas shown in orthopedics and genetics departments. The meantechnical efficiency of non-medical departments in education andresearch domain was 91.93 and 76.08, respectively, while the meantechnical efficiency of the clinical department in educational andresearch fields was 91.02 and 82.23, respectively.Conclusion: Using multiple input and output in DEA techniqueprovided a comprehensive evaluation of efficiency in Shiraz schoolof medicine departments. The DEA could successfully estimatethe technical efficiency of the departments in research andeducational fields. Moreover, the deficiency in each departmentwas found; this could help them to plan for improvement.Keywords: Education; Medical school; Efficiency; Resource allocation