The Campus Querétaro School of Health Sciences obtained its third quality accreditation from the Medical Education Program by the Mexican Council for Accreditation of Medical Education (COMAEM). In Mexico there are 144 medical schools, of which only 75 have this support from their educational programs, reported Dr. Martha Cruz, Coordinator of quality and academic management of the ECS of UVM.
Martha Cruz said that COMAEM aims to plan, organize, apply and evaluate the accreditation process of the medical education programs of the country’s Medical Schools and Faculties, based on the quality standards and procedures stipulated in the National System of Accreditation.
For this, it is essential to comply with three requirements: registration of official validity of the academic plan before the SEP, that the school be affiliated with the Mexican Association of Schools and Faculties of Medicine (AMFEM) and have at least 90% of the standards of quality of the self-assessment comprising the COMAEM instrument.
Accreditation is the result of a self-study process consisting of 60 indicators classified into seven chapters: institutional orientation and government, curriculum, students, teachers, evaluation, institutional linkage, and administration and resources.
Subsequently, COAMEM brings together a group of accredited verifiers, experts from different medical schools in the country to review the study document, who deliver a report of the results to the authorities of this accrediting body so that they can finally issue their opinion.
Dr. Cruz noted that chapter two, which deals with the curriculum, is one of the most important in the instrument, since it comprises 21 of the 60 required standards. This chapter evaluates the competences that a health professional in Mexico must have, so the educational institution must support the updating of study plans, the quality of graduates, as well as the need to train doctors in the region.
He added that having this accreditation allows obtaining agreements for students to use the clinical field in public hospitals, it also makes it easier for the student to take the national residency exam, hence the relevance that the UVM School of Health Sciences has with this backing.
On the other hand, the Coordinator of quality and academic management of the ECS, recalled that UVM medical school in Querétaro opened its first generation in 1998, for which it had the first COMAEM accreditation process in 2005, the first re-accreditation process in 2011 and the third process in 2018. Since its inception, 35 generations of quality doctors have graduated.
According to Dr. Martha Cruz, the ECS Campus Querétaro, is a school with a long tradition that has demonstrated in accreditations that it is training professionals of academic quality, adhering to the standards of the National Accreditation System.
Source: UVM