The 2019 Annual Meeting of Working Committee for the Accreditation of Medical Education was Held Successfully

In the face of the severe situation of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Secretariat of Working Committee for the Accreditation of Medical Education（WCAME）adopted the new method of online meeting to hold the 2019 annual meeting of Working Committee for the Accreditation of Medical Education.

On March 8, members of WCAME from all over the country, senior accreditation experts and comrades from the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education and the Higher Education Evaluation Center met online successfully and efficiently completed the tasks of 2019 annual meeting of Working Committee for the Accreditation of Medical Education.

To ensure the success of the plenary session of WCAME, the Secretariat of WCAME made full preparations and organized an online meeting test on the afternoon of 7 March. The secretariat informed and answered questions about the use of the software, the meeting process, the online voting rules etc. to ensure that each member can successfully join in the meeting and get familiar with the online software operation.

At 8:15 a.m. on March 8, 46 delegates gathered in time, and the online meeting of began according to the plan. Wang Weimin, Chairman of WCAME expressed his gratitude to the experts for their active preparation and participation in the online meeting and their full support for the work of the Secretariat of WCAME. The meeting was presided over by Ms. Xie Ana, the secretary-general of WCAME.

The meeting reviewed the accreditation reports and conclusion recommendations of Hebei North University and other 14 universities. In conjunction with the presentations and accreditation reports of the 15 expert group leaders, the participating members expressed their views based on Standards for Basic Medical Education in China and conducted an online vote on the conclusion recommendations. Compact sessions, smooth communication, transparent online voting results were observed in the meeting.

After the voting process, Xie Ana reported on the work achievement in 2019 and the work plan for 2020, with a special briefing on the status of WFME accreditation and the draft of the consultation report from WFME. In addition, the experts at the meeting discussed and agreed on the conditions of the preliminary and the review visit .

Chairman Wang Weimin made a summary. He stated that this meeting cannot be held without the active preparation and guidance of all previous generations, experts, and leaders of the Ministry of Education. The 2020 workload of WCAME would be huge, so we needed everybody’s support as always. WCAME would conduct further research, feedback and training on issues identified during the accreditation process. At the same time, the National Center for the Development of Medical Education planned to set up Association of Health Professions Education Institutions for Faculty Development in China（AHPEIFD）to provide systematic support to colleges. WCAME would actively communicate with WFME to strengthen ability construction and enhance international credibility and influence.

For the online meeting of WCAME plenary session, the Secretariat designed a questionnaire to collect comments and suggestions from participating experts. The participants gave positive feedback and made valuable recommendations for the online meeting. 100% of the experts surveyed were satisfied or very satisfied with the online meeting.

WCAME will continue to work for the establishment of a sound accreditation system for medical education with Chinese characteristics and the international equivalent in essence to ensure the quality of clinical medicine education, improve the training quality of health workforce and promote the implementation of the Healthy China strategy.

May the whole nation safe and sound.

Secretariat of the Working Committee for the Accreditation of Medical Education

March 9^th ,2020