Two secretaries from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) provided a consultation visit to the UCF College of Medicine on October 21 and 22 and gave us informal feedback on how well the college is meeting standards for accreditation.
The activities of the LCME are administered by the two secretaries, Dr. Dan Hunt and Dr. Barbara Barzansky, who together have many years of experience. The secretaries do not serve on the survey team that will visit the College of Medicine in February and will not vote on our provisional accreditation. Their visit, at our request, was designed to provide helpful feedback on our draft documents and assist us in preparing for the on-site visit.
The secretaries reviewed an extensive database that documents how the College of Medicine is meeting 132 specific standards under the headings of Institutional Setting, Educational Program for the M.D. Degree, Medical Students, Faculty and Educational Resources.
The LCME accredits all programs leading to an M.D. degree in the United States and Canada. A three-member survey team, who are voluntary peer evaluators, will visit Orlando February 15-18 to do an in-depth study of the College of Medicine’s progress, meet with college leaders, faculty members and students, and then prepare a survey report that will be provided to the 17-member appointed LCME Committee. The decision for provisional accreditation from the LCME Members is expected to be announced in June. Full accreditation will not be determined until the 2013 students are in their fourth year of the program.
Participants in the feedback sessions said the secretaries were pleased with the college’s progress in meeting the accreditation standards and the quality of the narratives in the database. They provided many suggestions for strengthening our materials and insights into how the accreditation standards will be interpreted. They were also impressed with the medical education building’s state-of-the-art facilities.
“We’re on track,” Dr. Deborah German, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine said of the visit. “We still have lots and lots of work to do.”