AMSE at the World Health Summit Regional Meeting, 8 – 9 May 2017, Montreal / Canada
The Université de Montréal and the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) hosted the 1st World Health Summit Regional Meeting on 8/9 May 2017. This meeting was one of two yearly conferences of the M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centres, Universities and National Academies. Based on the theme of “Health and Healthcare Delivery in Pluralistic Societies”, it focused on the question of human diversity in the practice, education, research and public policy pertaining to health. The meeting, offering a variety of workshops, discussions and symposia, brought together leading researchers, physicians, government officials and representatives from industry, non-governmental organisations and healthcare systems worldwide.
At the symposium “Advances in Accreditation of Medical Schools” four speakers presented their data:
- John Norcini (FAIMER, USA) about “Global View of Accreditation”,
- Peter Dieter (AMSE, Germany) about “European perspectives of accreditation of MD education”,
- Danielle Blouin (AFMC, Canada) about “Accreditation of Undergraduate Medical Programs: The Canadian Experience”,
- Chi-Wan Lai (KFSYSCC, Taiwan) about “Accreditation of Medical Schools in Taiwan Past, Present and Future”.
In his presentation to the international audience, Peter Dieter gave a general overview of AMSE and WHO Europe with respect to the diversity of medical education programs, quality standards and accreditation procedures in the individual countries. He focused on the quality assurance initiative of AMSE and the necessity of a common European-wide standard of medical education programmes and medical schools and an obligatory European-wide quality assurance procedure. Finally, he pointed out that the quality assurance initiative of AMSE was very similar to the ECFMG/USA initiative stating that physicians applying for ECFMG Certification will be required to graduate from a medical school that has been appropriately accredited.
In the final discussion, participants supported the necessity for an international accreditation which is accepted and compulsory. It guarantees a high-quality education for medical doctors and a safe patient care worldwide.