Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine receives two key accreditation designations
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine recently came one step closer to full accreditation when the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) granted it provisional accreditation, the third of four stages in the process.
The LCME, the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to the M.D. degree in the United States and Canada, conducted a three-day site visit of the school in January. Based on the findings of that visit — and the school’s three-foot-tall paper application — the LCME has determined that the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine has met the prescribed standards in the areas of curriculum, educational resources, student affairs and admissions, faculty affairs, and institutional setting. Following LCME protocol, the school will not be eligible for full accreditation until its charter class graduates in the spring of 2014.
“We’re delighted to learn that we’re on track for accreditation,” said Dr. Cynda Johnson, founding dean of the school. “I’m so proud of our team — our faculty, our staff, and our students — for their remarkable work in making this school a reality and for achieving this milestone. I’m enormously grateful, too, for the vision and generosity of our founding partner institutions, Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic, and for the dedication of our clinical and community partners. Without the support and participation of all these stakeholders, we could not be building this premier educational institution.”
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine was also recently granted candidacy status by the accrediting body of degree-granting higher education institutions in the South, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which conducted a site visit in March.
“We’re thrilled to receive this designation, which is a hallmark of educational excellence,” Johnson said. “Equally gratifying for me, though, was a moment at the end of our site visit this spring, when one of the evaluators turned to me and said, simply, ‘You must be bursting with pride.’”