What is the LCME Self Study Process?
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accredits all Medical Schools in the United States and Canada. The LCME accreditation occurs in three phases: Preliminary, Provisional and Full. In June 2010 we completed the first phase of accreditation, Preliminary, which allowed us to admit our first Class in 2011. We are now preparing for our Provisional accreditation and will complete this process in February 2013. We will be in contact with many of you to assist in this process.
As part of the Provisional Accreditation process the School of Medicine prepares a database and conducts a year-long self-study. The School convenes five self-study teams (Institutional Setting, Educational Program, Medical Students, Faculty and Faculty Resources), representing the five subsections of the LCME process, and charges these teams with reviewing the database and drafting self-study reports. Based upon these reports, the School submits a self-study report designed to substantiate the school’s ability to meet the provisional accreditation standards to the LCME in November 2012.
Our medical students will be represented on these committees and will also be developing a questionnaire that will assess the quality of their experience thus far, from the education they are receiving to the housing here on campus.
After the school submits the self-study, an LCME team conducts a site visit - our Provisional site visit has been scheduled for February 19th through 22nd 2013.
During the site visit the LCME survey team interviews faculty, staff, and administration to ascertain whether our school indeed meets the standards for provisional accreditation and to review progress towards implementation of the educational program leading to the M.D. degree. At this time, the status of planning for later stages of the program, specifically the third and fourth years of the curriculum, is fully examined.
