The Liaison Committee for Public Education (LCME), one of two accrediting agencies for medical programs in Canada and the United States, is placing Halifax’s Dalhousie University’s undergraduate medical education program on probation pending the outcome of the school’s appeal in October.
The decision to place Dalhousie’s program on probation came after an LCME review found the program had failed to meet the agency’s accrediting requirements. The review – conducted alongside the other major accrediting body, the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools – determined that the program was non-compliant in 17 areas, prompting the LCME not to issue an accreditation.
“This is a preliminary decision,” comments Charmaine Gaudet, director of communications for Dalhousie’s Medical School. “If our appeal fails and the preliminary ruling stands, we will have 24 months to fix the deficiencies cited by the LCME.”
Gaudet states that throughout the whole process students should rest assure that the school will maintain full accredited status.
“Throughout this time, our undergraduate program will remain fully accredited and the ruling will not affect our students’ ability to qualify as doctors or to obtain postgraduate training in programs of their choice.”
Initial media reports have identified a few of LCME’s criticisms. These include lacking a program to assist students with their teaching abilities, neglecting to update their computer database, and possessing inadequate locker space for students.
The school administration notes that while some of the complaints are insignificant and debatable, the majority of them dealt with the program’s structure – shortcomings the school acknowledged before the review took place.
“Issues identified by the LCME mainly have to do with curriculum management, monitoring, evaluation and information. They don’t have anything to do with the quality of the program,” Gaudet said. “Even before the LCME review we were well aware that we needed to make improvements in some of these areas and we were already working on a lot of them at the time of accreditation.”
As a result of being placed on probation, Gaudet said the school plans to expand and accelerate their internal project to address LCME’s concerns, focusing a considerable amount of time and energy to revamp its curriculum.
“Our second major focus is curriculum renewal. We knew some time ago that we needed to renew our curriculum but because we are in the process of developing a satellite MD program in New Brunswick, we put that on hold temporarily,” Gaudet said.
“Now that the pieces are falling in place for the launch of the new program in
September 2010, we have renewed this project in earnest,” Gaudet said.
“Our goal is for Dalhousie Medical School to once again be at the forefront of medical education in Canada.”
Despite the LCME’s decision, members of the student body have stood behind the school maintaining that the issues raised by the accreditation review were either acknowledged and in the process of being addressed by the school administration or unfairly maligned and questionable.
“Some of the points that the accreditation report identified were expected and steps were already being taken to address them; other points are being contested,” said Aris Lavranos, president of Dalhousie’s Medical Student Society.
“The LCME definitely identified some areas where we recognize improvement is needed; however, there were a number of instances when information presented to them was incomplete or their perceptions, perhaps, misguided.”
The society has commended the university for its interactions with students during the difficult process, particularly the honest and clear information provided by the faculty.
“The transparency with the student body, their request for feedback and the steps they are taking to address this issue makes us feel confident that when it’s all said and done, Dalhousie medical education program will be an even better institution,” Lavranos said.
While the school prepares for its October appeal in Chicago, both staff and students believe that the Dalhousie medical program will rebound and maintain its’ stature.
“The Dalhousie medical program has consistently produced highly competent, professional and compassionate physicians as both leaders and scholars in the community,” Lavranos said. “Nothing to date has made me feel we will deviate from that trend in the future.”