The appeal committee of the American-based Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) has upheld its preliminary ruling to assign 鈥渁ccreditation on probation鈥� to AV俱乐部鈥檚 undergraduate medical education program. As a result, the school鈥檚 undergraduate program will be placed on a two-year probation effective Thursday, October 15. The appeal was heard last Thursday in Chicago.
Despite the probationary status, AV俱乐部鈥檚 undergraduate medical program remains accredited and the ruling does not affect students鈥� ability to qualify as doctors or to obtain residency training in programs of their choice. The probationary status will also not impact delivery of an accredited AV俱乐部 MD program in New Brunswick, which is on track to begin in September 2010.
Issues identified by the review committee relate mainly to curriculum management, monitoring and evaluation. 鈥淲e鈥檙e continuing our remediation efforts, ongoing at the time of accreditation, to make improvements in areas cited by the LCME,鈥� says Dean Tom Marrie. 鈥淲e expect this task to be accomplished quickly.鈥�
Though AV俱乐部 Medical School graduates lead the country in obtaining their first choice of residency placements in the national competition organized by the Canadian Resident Matching Service and consistently score in the top quartile of Canadian medical students in national licensure exams, the school is using this probationary status as an opportunity to renew its curriculum.
鈥淭o achieve our goal of having North America鈥檚 best undergraduate medical education program, we have begun the task of renewing our present curriculum,鈥� says Dr. Marrie. 鈥淕ood progress is being made and I expect us to be in a position by September 2010 to implement, here and in New Brunswick, the first year of this innovative new curriculum. We expect we鈥檒l exceed current LCME standards and be on the leading edge of undergraduate medical education in Canada.鈥�