Five years after first earning its full accreditation, Dell Med remains a leader in training the workforce of the future with plans to expand learning opportunities through the creation of The University of Texas Medical Center.
Dell Medical School is one of 155 M.D.-awarding schools in the United States accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education will continue to fully accredit Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin for the next eight years, a signal of strong confidence in the school’s groundbreaking medical degree program.
Sponsored by both the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association, the LCME is the accrediting body for medical schools in the United States and Canada. It made the determination after a survey team visited Dell Med in October.
“Dell Med is the anchor of the world-class academic medical system we’re building at UT, playing a vital role in training the physicians who will lead the future of health and innovation,” says Claudia F. Lucchinetti, M.D., dean of Dell Med and senior vice president for medical affairs at the University. “The LCME’s award of full accreditation is a well-earned acknowledgment of the leadership and innovation Dell Med has demonstrated during its first decade, as well as the dedication and talent of our faculty and students. This serves as a strong foundation on which we’ll continue to build the next generation of health care leaders who embrace the intersection of health, medicine and technology, always with the patient at the heart of our mission.”
Dell Med earned preliminary accreditation in 2015, which allowed it to recruit its first class of medical students, and achieved full accreditation in 2020, the same year its first class graduated. For the last two years, more than 250 faculty and staff members led by Beth Nelson, M.D., and LuAnn Wilkerson, Ed.D., performed rigorous self-study, data analysis and reporting in advance of the committee’s 2024 site visit. Additionally, 12 student leaders facilitated an independent review incorporating feedback from nearly all of Dell Med’s students.
“Eight years is the longest term of accreditation for a medical school, meaning that we have earned the full endorsement of the LCME as we advance medical education,” says James R. Korndorffer Jr., M.D., Dell Med’s vice dean of education. “This is important validation to build on as we continue to pioneer new and better ways to train physicians to lead the future of health.”
Each school is evaluated by the LCME on 94 elements of its curriculum and educational activities. While continuing to innovate, education leaders will use areas identified by the LCME as opportunities for growth and to demonstrate ongoing impact.
“Accreditation is an important mechanism to maintain a quality education program,” says Nelson, senior associate dean of undergraduate education and one of the early architects of Dell Med’s signature Leading EDGE curriculum. “As a new school, the accreditation process has been part of our daily routines for the last 10 years. We are delighted with this outcome and value the feedback the LCME’s experts shared to focus our educators’ relentless efforts to advance the art and science of teaching medicine.”