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Functions
and Structure of a Medical School:
LCME Accreditation Standards
Accreditation
is a voluntary, peer-review process designed to attest to the educational
quality of new and
established educational programs. The Liaison Committee on Medical
Education (LCME) accredits
complete and independent medical education programs in which medical
students are geographically
located in the United States or Canada for their education and which
are operated by universities or
medical schools that are chartered in the United States or Canada.
Accreditation
of Canadian medical education programs is undertaken in cooperation
with the Committee
on the Accreditation
of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS). By judging the compliance
of medical education
programs with nationally accepted standards of educational quality,
the LCME and the CACMS serve the interests
of the general public and of the medical students enrolled in those
programs.
To achieve and maintain accreditation, a medical education program
leading to the M.D. degree in the
U.S. and Canada must meet the standards contained in the following
document. The accreditation process requires a
medical education program to provide assurances that its graduates
exhibit general professional
competencies that are appropriate for entry to the next stage of their
training and that serve as the
foundation for lifelong learning and proficient medical care. While
recognizing the existence and
appropriateness of diverse institutional missions and educational
objectives, the LCME subscribes to the
proposition that local circumstances do not justify accreditation
of a substandard program of medical
education leading to the M.D. degree.