title: The importance of medical education accreditation standards.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative and absolute importance of individual standards used by accreditation agencies throughout the world.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a 150-item survey that consisted of all World Federation for Medical Education standards, supplemented with additional standards used around the world. International accreditation experts rated the standards based on the importance of each standard for ensuring the quality of undergraduate medical education. A 3-point scale was employed: 1 = not important, 2 = important but not essential, 3 = essential.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen of 22 chosen experts anonymously completed the survey (59%). The mean values, over raters, across individual standards ranged from 2.32 to 2.87, indicating that most of the 150 standards are at least important, and often essential, for ensuring program quality. Fourteen standards received the highest rating of 3 ("Essential") from all experts, and four standards received mean ratings ≤2.00. Variability in the ratings across the experts for individual standards ranged from 0.00 (unanimous agreement) to 0.76 (moderate disagreement).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While there is some global variation in experts' opinions of accreditation standards, certain standards are considered essential. Our summary data are useful for determining best practices for medical education accreditation systems.
authors.affiliation: Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. mvanzanten@faimer.org
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Zanten
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Boulet
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Greaves
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation / Q000592:standards*; D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards; D003625:Data Collection; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D015397:Program Evaluation; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000592:standards; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000592:standards*