Accreditation on probation

The appeal committee of the American-based Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) has upheld its preliminary ruling to assign “accreditation on probation” to Dalhousie’s undergraduate medical education program. As a result, the school’s undergraduate program will be placed on a two-year probation effective Thursday, October 15. The appeal was heard last Thursday in Chicago.

Despite the probationary status, Dalhousie’s undergraduate medical program remains accredited and the ruling does not affect students’ ability to qualify as doctors or to obtain residency training in programs of their choice. The probationary status will also not impact delivery of an accredited Dalhousie MD program in New Brunswick, which is on track to begin in September 2010.

Issues identified by the review committee relate mainly to curriculum management, monitoring and evaluation. “We’re continuing our remediation efforts, ongoing at the time of accreditation, to make improvements in areas cited by the LCME,” says Dean Tom Marrie. “We expect this task to be accomplished quickly.”

Though Dalhousie Medical School graduates lead the country in obtaining their first choice of residency placements in the national competition organized by the Canadian Resident Matching Service and consistently score in the top quartile of Canadian medical students in national licensure exams, the school is using this probationary status as an opportunity to renew its curriculum.

“To achieve our goal of having North America’s best undergraduate medical education program, we have begun the task of renewing our present curriculum,” says Dr. Marrie. “Good progress is being made and I expect us to be in a position by September 2010 to implement, here and in New Brunswick, the first year of this innovative new curriculum. We expect we’ll exceed current LCME standards and be on the leading edge of undergraduate medical education in Canada.”