Happy 2017! Last year flew by and I assume this year will go even faster with all that’s happening at your College of Medicine.

I want to thank each of you for all you do individually and with your affiliated institutions to support the educational program. Our success is only because of your expertise and involvement.  One way your efforts are rewarded is by advancement in rank. The promotion process for affiliated and volunteer faculty now occurs semi-annually. Twice a year – June 30 and December 31 – the College of Medicine dean accepts nominations of faculty members whose accomplishments warrant consideration for promotion. These nominations are reviewed by the College Non-Tenure Promotion Committee, that makes recommendations. The dean makes the final decision for advancement. Changes in the faculty member’s academic rank become effective at the beginning of the calendar year when a request is submitted by June 30 or at the beginning of the next academic year, July 1, if submitted by December 31.

Congratulations to the following 11 faculty who were promoted January 1: Central Florida Regional Medical Center – To Associate Professor: Dr. Peter Pappas; Florida Hospital – To Associate Professor: Drs. Michael McDonald and Shantel Hebert-Magee; Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center – To Associate Professor: Dr. Rahul Pathak; Nemours Children’s Hospital – To Professor: Drs. Monica Epelman, James Franciosi, and Todd Glass, To Associate Professor: Drs. Mauri Carakushansky, Tomislav Ivsic and Bahram Kakavand; Orlando V. A. Medical Center: To Professor: Dr. Georgine Lamvu. There are also 10 faculty who have submitted requests to be considered for advancement in the spring semester. Remember the next deadline is June 30 for those interested.

The College received accreditation by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education in February 2013. Re-accreditation is set to occur in February 2018. Three important events lead up to this process. First, the student body conducts an Independent Student Analysis of the educational program; second, a data collection instrument is prepared for the 12 LCME standards with their elements and third, the college conducts a self-study. All this information will be submitted to the LCME the first week of July. A team of five physicians/scientists will make a site visit to the college October 22-25 and report their findings to the LCME. I anticipate re-accreditation will be for eight years so the next process won’t happen until 2025-2026.

A college doesn’t prepare for accreditation just a year before it happens. The best programs prepare by addressing LCME’s standards day in and day out. Each of you participate in this process and probably don’t realize it.

We are required to inform you of the college’s educational goals and objectives. You were referred to our website in your appointment letter in that regard and I urge you to refresh your understanding of the goals and objectives here  (https://med.ucf.edu/academics/md-program/program-objectives/). From these overarching objectives, modules and clerkships develop their goals and objectives. Those who work with students directly have their own day-to-day goals. All of these come together to build what we believe is a strong educational program and evaluation process for accreditation.

Speaking of re-accreditation – I guess we are gluttons for punishment. We received initial accreditation (two years) from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education in March 2016. Guess what? We are up for re-accreditation in 2018 and completing a self-study of our processes to be submitted in July with a visit scheduled in the fall. Our program is being called Continuous Professional Development and we have sponsored several programs to date. We hope to provide many more and hope that our service helps you fulfill your state and discipline specific needs.

Our involvement in GME programs continues to grow. Currently we have 125 UCF residents in Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology. We have been approved for a transitional program and are awaiting final word on Neurology. PIFs for Surgery and Psychiatry are in process.   We should have 575 residents by  2020 in IM/FM, EM, Neuro, Psychiatry, Ob-Gyn, and Surgery,

Many of you participated in the college’s 10^th Anniversary celebration in November.  2017 will ring in the graduation of our first class of 120 – adding to the 263 UCF physicians who are now doing their residencies across the state and nation. Our charter class graduates are finishing their residencies and many are going into fellowship training. Match Day will be here before we know it on March 17. We already had four soon-to-be M.D.s match in Ophthalmology, four in Urology and one in the military. So we are off to a successful match start.

Happy New Year and again my sincere appreciation to all that you do for the UCF College of Medicine.

Pep