Commentary: mentoring--benchmarks for work performance.

Across all specialties of medicine, there is increasing attention to developing and using benchmarks to evaluate productivity and to establish compensation plans, that is, “pay for performance.” Psychologists have to balance the unique aspects of their professional responsibilities with the need of administrators to have systems that are equitable across faculty members. Thus, psychologists need empirical data to develop equitable benchmarks that are applicable to psychological practice and understandable to physician colleagues and administrators. The article by Opipari-Arrigan and colleagues (in press) provides initial guidelines; however, it does not include benchmarks for mentoring, an important area of professional activity. Measuring productivity may be necessary if mentoring is to be sustained at high levels of excellence.