News: Postgraduate Accreditation site visit concludes

A message from Dr. Chris Watling, Associate Dean, Postgraduate Medical Education:

Last week, the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry’s Postgraduate Accreditation site visit concluded. During the week, each of the School’s residency and area of focused competence programs, along with the institution as a whole, were evaluated by an experienced team of surveyors. Program and institution performance were reviewed against the national standards that govern postgraduate medical education. We welcome accreditation as part of our commitment to continuous quality improvement – a commitment that ensures that our postgraduate training programs continue to deliver exemplary training to our residents and fellows.

We now await full reports from this process, which we expect in early 2020. We anticipate that these reports will identify areas of strength and areas for improvement in all programs. The reports will provide a road map for programs in the months and years ahead, as they seek to continually refine and enhance the quality of education they offer.

The survey team who completed this accreditation visit make recommendations about the status of accreditation for each program and for the institution, but these recommendations ultimately go to the Residency Accreditation Committees of the Royal College and the College of Family Physicians. These committees will meet in the spring of 2020, and it is at that stage that a new status of accreditation will be conferred on each program. All of our programs are and will remain accredited, however. Some programs may be required to demonstrate their progress toward addressing identified areas for improvement within two years. The next full accreditation site visit will occur in 2027.

We are immensely proud of our postgraduate programs at Schulich Medicine. We are grateful for the commitment and dedication of program directors, program administrators, and teaching faculty, both for their efforts in preparing for this accreditation visit, and for their year-round support for residency training.

Dr. Chris Watling
Associate Dean, Postgraduate Medical Education
Schulich Medicine & Dentistry
Western University