AMSE at the World Health Summit Forum, 19 – 21 April 2016, Geneva / Switzerland

Since it was launched in 2009, the World Health Summit (WHS) has brought together stakeholders and decision makers from every field in the healthcare spectrum, providing the perfect forum for exchange with experts from academia, industry, politics and civil society. The vision behind the WHS is to improve health all over the world, catalysing that process through collaboration and open dialogue, and steering tomorrow’s agenda to improve research, education, healthcare, and policy outcomes. The WHS Regional Meeting in 2016 was organised in Geneva and provided a space for dialogue and major exchanges between field practitioners, the university hospitals, the public and private sectors, international organisations and non-governmental organisations.

At the workshop entitled “Medical Education: Quality and Internationalisation” the AMSE President Peter Dieter presented the AMSE Quality Assurance Initiative of a science-based medical education. Peter Dieter summarised that medical education has evolved in several different ways in Europe with respect to the national traditions and structures of higher education of its countries. He also pointed out that the quality standards and their recognition are country specific and that in almost 50% of the countries accreditation is only optional but not obligatory. On the other side, the European Recognition of Professional Qualification Directive (2013/55/EU) includes the automatic recognition of professional qualification in basic medical training which is intended to guarantee a limitless practice for physicians in Europe. In the future this might lead to a risk in health and patient care across Europe. Against this backdrop, Peter Dieter proposed:

1. that medical education must be science-based,
2. that medical education can only take place at recognised universities/medical schools/teaching hospitals,
3. to define common quality standards (such as the WFME Standards for Basic Medical Education) and
4. to control and recognise these standards by European/international recognised accreditation agencies.

At the end, he pointed out as one objective of this initiative the automatic recognition of professional qualifications and free employability shall only take place if the quality standards and appropriate language skills are met.

AMSE’s proposal to require medical school accreditation as a prerequisite for automatic recognition of professional qualifications is a significant step in its continuing efforts to enhance protection of the public.