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Period for Public Comment on
Changes to Accreditation Standards ED-11 and ED-15
open until December 31, 2009
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (
Written comments will become part of the hearing record.
Written comments may be forwarded until December 31, 2009, to Barbara Barzansky,
MD, MHPE, LCME Secretary, at the American Medical Association, 515 North State
Street, Chicago, IL, 60654, or via e-mail to: lcme@aamc.org. Anonymous comments will not be
considered. For further information, contact Dr. Barzansky at 312-464-4933.
Background and
Rationale
The
LCME regularly receives requests from various groups to add specific subject
areas to its accreditation standards. Typically, these requests are denied,
as the LCME does not wish to prescriptively dictate the content of the curriculum
and to add requirements in a piecemeal fashion. However, with the explosion
of knowledge, the LCME has recognized a need to provide a framework to assist
schools in choosing what content to include in the curriculum. Instead of
specifying preclinical and clinical disciplines, the LCME has chosen to amend
standards ED-11 and ED-15 to focus on the desired purpose and outcome of the
education.
That
is, revised standard ED-11 expects schools to choose content from the biomedical
sciences relevant to the "health of people." The annotation provides
guidance as to what general subject areas could be included that are relevant
to this desired outcome. Similarly, revised standard ED-15 focuses on choosing
content related to specific competency areas, not on the disciplines per se.
This change reflects the goal of increasing the integration of content across
the educational continuum.
The proposed changes were approved by the LCME and its sponsoring associations, the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges. In Canada, these changes also were approved by the sponsoring organizations of the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Colleges (CACMS).
Following
public comment, the
Standard ED-11
Current
Standard ED-11
[The curriculum] must include the
contemporary content of those disciplines that have been traditionally titled
anatomy, biochemistry, genetics, physiology, microbiology and immunology,
pathology, pharmacology and therapeutics, and preventive medicine.
There
is no current annotation to standard ED-11.
The
LCME has approved the following revision and new annotation to replace the
existing
ED-11:
New Standard ED-11
The
curriculum of the
New Annotation for
ED-11
It is
expected that the curriculum will be guided by clinically-relevant biomedical
content from, among others, the disciplines that have been traditionally titled
anatomy, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, microbiology, pathology,
pharmacology, physiology, and public health sciences.
STANDARD ED-15
Current
Standard ED-15
The curriculum should include clinical
experiences in family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology,
pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery.
Current
Annotation for ED-15
Schools that do not require clinical
experiences in one or another of these disciplines must ensure that their
students possess the knowledge and clinical abilities to enter any field of
graduate medical
New Standard ED-15
The
curriculum of the
New Annotation for
ED-15
It is
expected that the curriculum will be guided by the contemporary content from
and clinical experiences associated with, among others, the disciplines and
related subspecialties that have traditionally been titled family medicine,
internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, public
health, and surgery.
Revised 19 November 2009
Copyright 2009 LCME