gms | German Medical Science

High quality in medical education is a prerequisite for quality in health care delivery. The increasing global mobility of patients and health care personnel further underlines the need for quality assurance of medical education. But most importantly, accreditation should stimulate quality development. While accreditation must be undertaken by en independent, external organisation, quality development is primarily an internal responsibility of the individual institution or university.

To be internationally trustworthy, medical education institutions should undergo accreditation by internationally recognized national or regional accrediting bodies, with a legal status in that country or region. The World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) offer global standards and guidelines for quality assurance and quality development as well as an internationally established and transparant procedure for recognition of established accrediting organizations. This will promote recognition of accredited medical education institutions worldwide and universal acceptance of diplomas issued from those institutions. As a complement to formal accreditation, WFME together with the FAIMER Institute in US has developed a web-based Directory of Medical Schools, with validated information about more than 80% of the worlds medical schools, including accreditation status.