Accreditation of undergraduate and graduate medical education: how do the standards contribute to quality?

Accreditation organizations such as the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME), the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC), and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) are charged with the difficult task of evaluating the educational quality of medical education programs in North America. Traditionally accreditation includes a more quantitative rather than qualitative judgment of the educational facilities, resources and teaching provided by the programs. The focus is on the educational process but the contributions of these to the outcomes are not at all clear. As medical education moves toward outcome-based education related to a broad and context-based concept of competence, the accreditation paradigm should change accordingly.