UVa School of Medicine Gets Maximum Accreditation

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) recently extended the School of Medicine's accreditation for the maximum term of 8 years. This gratifying news was the culmination of two years of hard work by more than 100 faculty members, students and staff who served on self-study committees that examined the school's institutional setting, educational program, medical students, faculty and educational resources.    

The LCME emphasized several areas of excellence, including:

  • Responsiveness and accessibility of the faculty and administration
  • Collegiality among faculty, students, and administrators
  • Commitment of the dean to medical education
  • Innovative courses such as POM2 and Social Issues in Medicine
  • Support available to faculty for significant and creative uses of information technology
  • Extensive and well-organized faculty development program
  • Articulation, via the Decade Plan, of a clear set of goals and corresponding actions to address the ongoing needs of the school and the health system.

While the overall report was extremely positive, the LCME did identify some challenges for us, including:

  • Consistency of instructional content in the clerkships across time and different instructional sites
  • Practical application of culturally competent care and ethical issues in an experiential context
  • Preparation of residents for their roles as teachers and evaluators of medical students
  • There should be an explicit description of the appeal process for adverse actions relating to students 
  • Faculty diversity 
  • Direct faculty involvement in the composition of the important school committees
  • Adequacy of lecture halls used for first-year and second-year courses

The report identified the following as "in transition"

  • The effects of recently instituted changes in the curriculum
  • Tuition increases

A report will be submitted to the LCME next year to outline progress in addressing these challenges.

For more specific information about the outcome of the re-accreditation process, please visit the UVA LCME Self-Study intranet site https://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/intranet/lcme/home.cfm.