In November, the UAB Heersink School of Medicine was notified it had achieved the highest level of accreditation available to a medical school in the United States—valid for eight years—by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). The achievement came after a rigorous, two-year self-study process.
Accreditation demonstrates that the Heersink School of Medicine has met and is maintaining high standards set by the LCME, the nationally recognized authority for accrediting medical education programs leading to the M.D. degree in the United States and Canada.
“Maintaining our full LCME accreditation is a testament to the work teams across the school put into the process,” says Craig Hoesley, M.D., senior associate dean for Medical Education. “We took a long look at our institution and began making changes in areas where we felt we could grow to address our challenges, which is the whole point of the accreditation process. Full accreditation is also a signal to students and faculty that the Heersink School of Medicine provides medical education rivaling schools across the country.”
The reaccreditation process began in 2020 with the gathering of information for a database that was divided and read by members of the Self-Study Task Force. The task force was charged to highlight institutional strengths, identify challenges, and put forth solutions to address those challenges.
Student leaders also conducted the Independent Student Analysis, a fully student-led assessment of the medical school’s learning environment, educational program, resources, administration, and services.
The process concluded with a virtual site visit from an LCME review team April 11-13, 2022. The LCME Executive Committee, directed by faculty co-leads Cathy Fuller, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, and Gustavo Heudebert, M.D., professor in the Department of Medicine, oversaw each step of the process.
“Earning full accreditation from the LCME is a tremendous accomplishment that highlights not only excellence in our medical education mission, but the incredible work of faculty, staff, and students across the school to go through the reaccreditation process and prepare for our virtual site visit,” says Anupam Agarwal, M.D., interim senior vice president for Medicine and interim dean of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine.
The full LCME findings, along with progress notes on our work and improvements, are available at go.uab.edu/lcme.