About the LCME

In the fall of 2021, UTHSC hosted a visit from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). The LCME is the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to the M.D. degree in the U.S. and Canada. The LCME is jointly sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the American Medical Association (AMA). In the U.S., the accreditation status of programs leading to the M.D. degree is determined solely by the LCME.

This type of review typically occurs every 8 years to ensure that that the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine (UTHSC COM) educational program meets the national accreditation standards set by the LCME. Successful accreditation is vital to our medical school and the university as it allows our students to receive financial aid, take the United States Medical Licensing Examinations (USMLE Step 1 and Step 2), and participate in residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

We have now completed the data-collection phase of our institutional self-study, which was submitted to the LCME secretariat in July 2021. Our visit by the LCME survey team occurred in October 2021. Preparation of the self-study requires a massive effort by virtually every faculty member that contributes to the COM educational mission on our main campus in Memphis, and at our regional campuses in Chattanooga, Knoxville and Nashville. Our students contribute a critical component to the self-study by providing their opinions via the Independent Student Analysis (ISA) and the AAMC Graduation Questionnaire (GQ).

The institutional self-study is not just an exercise in collecting data about our educational program, but it provides us with an opportunity to improve the educational experience for our students. Indeed, a key element of the self-study involves strategies for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). Together with the ISA, our CQI projects provide us with the tools needed to offer an exceptional medical education program designed to produce the next generation of physicians for the state of Tennessee and beyond.