Dean's Message - September 2008
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Dear Colleagues:
What's on my mind this month is the School of Medicine's reaccreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) Review. As you know, the LCME survey team visited the School of Medicine last February, and provided its recommendations to the LCME shortly thereafter. An LCME committee then met in early June to review and evaluate the survey team's recommendations. It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the LCME voted to continue accreditation of the educational program leading to the MD degree at the School of Medicine for an eight-year term. The program's next full survey will take place during the 2015-2016 academic year.
The LCME concurred with the survey team that the following represent institutional strengths:
- The Office of Medical Education, headed by Associate Dean David B. Mallott, MD, is lauded for its superb support of the curriculum.
- The excellent resources and services provided by the library and the information technology staff facilitate the implementation and administration of the educational program.
- Strong professional development programs and faculty mentoring efforts throughout the school are laudatory, as is the support provided by the Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development, headed by Associate Dean Nancy R. Lowitt, MD, EDM, FACP.
- Maturation of the revised curriculum in Years I and II has been facilitated by excellent communication and collegiality among faculty members and department chairs and through the oversight of the Curriculum Coordinating Committee.
- The School of Medicine has benefited from strong decanal leadership over the past decade.
- The accelerated growth of the research enterprise is especially noteworthy.
- It is evident that an outstanding commitment to teaching permeates the institution.
Of course, as with any institutional review, along with our strengths there were some opportunities for improvement. The LCME identified only two areas of partial non-compliance with accreditation standards. The first opportunity for improvement is our limited student relaxation space. The LCME standards state that "schools should assure that students have adequate study space, lounge areas and personal lockers or other secure storage facilities." The LCME is aware that the university is building a new student center which will be completed next summer, and that should address this item of partial non-compliance.
The second opportunity for improvement deals with our admissions committee. The LCME standards state that the "final responsibility for selecting students to be admitted for medical study must reside with a duly constituted faculty committee." Our admissions committee is composed of 16 voting members, of whom 10 are faculty and six are medical students. The LCME was concerned that it is therefore technically possible that a quorum made up of a majority of medical students could determine an admissions decision. This has never occurred in the long history of the admissions committee. However, we have addressed the concern by now requiring a majority faculty vote for admissions committee actions, thus eliminating this remote possibility. These changes have been formally approved by the School of Medicine Executive Committee and Council. This will now place us in full compliance.
I again wish to thank the School of Medicine's entire LCME task force for their hard work. I want to especially acknowledge task force co-chair, Executive Vice Dean Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, who did an outstanding job coordinating this mammoth project. My special thanks also go to David Ingle, director of Academic Administration, Angelina Battaglia, program director in the Office of Medical Education and John Raczek, Web developer in the Office of Medical Education, for their hard work.
I wish to also thank each and every one of you, who every day work so hard to make the University of Maryland School of Medicine the outstanding institution that it is. The LCME has once again given us the "outstanding stamp of approval." Congratulations to our entire School of Medicine family.
In the relentless pursuit of excellence, I am
Sincerely yours,
E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA
Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland,
John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and
Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine