UA Med School Accredited Through 2022
UA – Tucson Medical Education Program Earns 8-Year Accreditation
The medical education program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson has earned accreditation through 2022, a full eight-year term.
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accreditation authority for medical school programs in the United States and Canada, announced the decision and identified a number of institutional strengths within the college that are distinctive and worthy of emulations. The committee is jointly sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association.
The UA College of Medicine – Tucson graduates 115 medical doctors each year and is led by Interim Dean Joe G.N. “Skip” Garcia, MD, who also serves as UA senior vice president for health sciences. The college’s medical education program is led by Kevin Moynahan, MD, deputy dean of education.
In January, more than 100 faculty, students, administrators and staff from the UA College of Medicine – Tucson met with the committee survey team during its site visit to determine accreditation eligibility.
In addition to awarding the college accreditation for a full cycle, the 19 committee members, who are medical educators and administrators, practicing physicians, public members and medical students appointed by the AAMC and AMA, determined that the college has a number of institutional strengths:
>> The student-developed and student-administered Commitment to Underserved People (CUP) program, implemented by the UA College of Medicine in 1979, provides an exceptional number and variety of community service and service-learning opportunities for medical students. The CUP program provides UA medical students the opportunity to gain clinical experience by working with medically underserved populations.
>> The development and implementation of an effective system of confidential and easily accessible personal counseling for its students, assisting them in adjusting to the ongoing emotional demands of a medical education.
>> The UA COM – Tucson Societies Program provides a strong longitudinal experience with a trained faculty mentor. Mentors are chosen from among the college’s most distinguished clinician-educators who teach students interviewing, physical examination and patient care skills at the patient bedside, helping students to develop clinical thinking, documentation and presentations and professionalism skills.
The UA College of Medicine – Tucson provides state-of-the-art programs of medical education, groundbreaking research opportunities and leading-edge patient care. Together with the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, the two colleges are Arizona’s only MD degree-granting institutions serving as a health care resource for the state and its people.
