Major accrediting body enhances Fort Worth M.D. school’s status, moving the medical school one step closer to full accreditation.
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) granted the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine Provisional Accreditation, bringing the medical school one step closer to full accreditation.
“This is a tremendous step in solidifying the medical school’s role as a critical partner in making Fort Worth and North Texas a place where medical innovation in education and health care occurs,” Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., the medical school’s founding dean said. “We are extremely humbled and grateful that the LCME favorably assessed our training mission to graduate physicians who will deliver compassionate care and lead into the rapidly changing health care environment, despite their not being able to visit our campus in-person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Members of the LCME voted at their meeting in mid-June to grant Provisional Accreditation to the innovative medical school that focuses on inspiring future physicians as Empathetic Scholars®. A team of accreditors from the LCME met virtually with senior leadership, faculty and students during a virtual site visit in February before making their Provisional Accreditation decision.
“We recognize this important step as a result of the tremendous hard work and leadership of our colleagues in the School of Medicine,” TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. said. “Their dedication to students and to an innovative curriculum has already gained national recognition and has positioned the School of Medicine to become a leader in medical education. This designation keeps us on a successful trajectory toward full accreditation, which is our goal for late 2023.”
The LCME awarded the school of medicine preliminary accreditation in October 2018, allowing the school to welcome its first class of 60 medical students in July 2019. The second cohort of 60 students arrived July 2020 after the school received more than 4,000 application submissions. Applications to the school of medicine doubled in 2021 to more than 8,000 applicants, and the school will welcome its third group of 60 medical students on July 12.
“This milestone affirms the vision that originally inspired the collaboration between TCU and UNTHSC: an innovative medical school that will improve health and patient care for our community and become a national leader through its unique focus on communication and the development of Empathetic Scholars®,” Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg, TCU provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs said.
The innovative curriculum at the School of Medicine focuses both on developing Empathetic Scholars®, physicians able to “walk in a patient’s shoes with compassion” while embracing and leading major drivers in the future of medicine, including artificial intelligence, technology monitoring patient health and disease, and genomics. Each student also does a four-year research thesis, nurturing lifelong inquiry and learning.
Learn more about the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine.