Abstract
Following the opening of 12 new medical schools in Korea in the 1980s, standardization and accreditation of medical schools came to the forefront in the early 1990s. To address the medical community’s concerns about the quality of medical education, the Korean Council for University Education and Ministry of Education conducted a compulsory medical school evaluation in 1996 to see whether medical schools were meeting academic standards or not. This evaluation was, however, a norm-referenced assessment, rather than a criterion-referenced assessment. As a result, the Accreditation Board for Medical Education in Korea (ABMEK) was founded in 1998 as a voluntary organization by the medical community. With full support of the Korean medical community, ABMEK completed its 1st cycle of evaluations of all 41 medical schools from 2000 to 2004. In 2004, ABMEK changed its name to the Korean Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation (KIMEE) as a corporate body. After that, the Korean government paid closer attention to its voluntary accreditation activities. In 2014, the Ministry of Education officially recognized the KIMEE as the 1st professional institute for higher education evaluation and accreditation. The most important lesson learned from ABMEK/KIMEE is the importance of collaboration among all medical education-related organizations, including the Korean Medical Association.
Highlights
Background/rationale On November 8, 2019, the 20th-anniversary symposium of the Korean Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation (KIMEE) was held at the Seoul Press Center International Conference Room
It is worthwhile to revisit the history of medical education accreditation activities conducted by the Accreditation Board of Medical Education and Evaluation of Korea (ABMEK) and the KIMEE starting in the late 1990s
In February 2012, the Ministry of Health and Welfare revised the Medical Service Act to state that graduates from medical schools that have not been accredited by the KIMEE cannot take the Korean Medical Licensing Examination starting in 2017, as follows: Table 1
Summary
It was the 1st agency to be recognized by the WFME in Asia [2] (Table 1) Another remarkable achievement of the KIMEE was reflected in the revision of the Medical Service Act. in February 2012, the Ministry of Health and Welfare revised the Medical Service Act to state that graduates from medical schools that have not been accredited by the KIMEE cannot take the Korean Medical Licensing Examination starting in 2017, as follows:. A bachelor’s degree holder who has graduated from a university or college, with a major in medical science, dentistry, or oriental medical science, which has obtained accreditation from an accredited institution referred to in Article 11-2 of the Higher Education Act (hereinafter referred to as “evaluation and certification body”; and the accreditation there from shall be referred to as “accreditation from the evaluation and certification body”) 2. Evidence of the impact of these legal changes is furnished by the fact that the Seonam University Medical School, which failed accreditation in 2013 and 2016 by the KIMEE, was eventually closed in February 2018
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