LCME stands for Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which is an accrediting body for medical education programs leading to the MD degree. The LCME is jointly sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the American Medical Association (AMA). The LCME is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) as the reliable authority for the accreditation of medical education programs leading to the MD degree in the United States.

The LCME defines accreditation as “a process by which institutions and programs undergo an extensive peer-based evaluation of their compliance with accepted standards for educational quality. Through the accreditation process, the LCME provides assurance to medical students and graduates, the medical profession, healthcare institutions, and the public that (1) educational programs culminating in the award of the MD degree meet reasonable, generally-accepted, consistently-applied, and appropriate national standards for educational quality and outcomes and (2) graduates of such programs have a complete and valid educational experience sufficient to prepare them for the next stage of their training” (LCME publication “Rules of Procedure,” March 2023).

LCME accreditation establishes eligibility for selected federal grants and programs, “provides medical students with access to the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), eligibility for entry into graduate medical education programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and eligibility for state medical licensure” (LCME publication “Guidelines for the Planning and Conduct of Accreditation Survey Visits,” May 13, 2024).

Currently, the LCME has established 12 overarching standards that medical education programs must demonstrate compliance with, along with 93 elements within the standards that medical education programs must demonstrate satisfactory performance in.

Our last survey visit was March 4-7, 2018. On October 19, 2018, LCME notified the SOM of its determination to continue full accreditation of the medical education program for an eight-year term (the maximum term allowed), with SOM’s next full survey visit scheduled to occur during the 2025-26 academic year. This visit has since been scheduled for March 23-25, 2026. Required follow-up through status reports were completed in August 2020, August 2021, and August 2022.

A directory of all LCME accredited medical education programs is available on the LCME website: https://lcme.org/directory/

“Full accreditation reviews, culminating in a full survey visit, typically occur on an eight-year cycle and consist of the following steps:

1. “Completion of the data collection instrument (DCI), the independent student analysis (ISA), and compilation of other supporting documents.
2. Analysis of the DCI and other information sources, including the ISA, by an institutional self-study task force and development of the self-study summary report based on this analysis.
3. Visit by an ad hoc survey team and preparation by the survey team of the survey report for review by the LCME.
4. Action on full accreditation by the LCME.”

(LCME publication “Guidelines for the Planning and Conduct of Accreditation Survey Visits,” May 13, 2024)

Visit the LCME website: https://lcme.org/