Building a Common Future for Social Accountability and Accreditation Locally and Globally[1]

Speakers:

Dr. Robert Woollard is a physician and professor in Family Medicine at the University of British Columbia.

‍Dr. Charles Boelen is a medical doctor and international consultant specializing in public health, epidemiology, health system management, and the education of health professionals.

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Held over Zoom on July 6, 2023, the learning objectives of this session include:

1. Learning about the history and context of social accountability including its origin in the WHO
2. Answering the questions: “Where are we now and where are we going?
3. Learning about the objectives and goals of each of the symposia in the series.

The session included a message by the ISAASC leadership and sections led by each speaker which explored the following key questions:

• How is accreditation a lever for social accountability?
• How can medical schools mobilize local and system-level changes towards social accountability?

The goals of the seminar were to:

• Define social accountability, its history, and why medical school accreditation is an important lever for social accountability.
• Summarize the past and present work of the International Social Accountability and Accreditation Steering Committee(ISAASC) and the important work of its action groups.
• Build interest in social accountability and accreditation to invite future participation.

Summary from the Collaborative Dialogue: Exploring accreditation as a lever for social accountability

• Timeline: Social Accountability of Medical Schools
  • Established in 1948, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated its mission of globally providing people with a “complete state of wellbeing, physical, mental and social.”
  • In 1970, the World Health Assembly resolution was adopted by member states to “provide Health For All by an intersectoral approach.”
  • In 1995, the WHO published a report defining the responsibility of medical schools to lead activities addressing the priority health concerns of the communities they have a mandate to serve. Priority needs must be identified jointly by governments, healthcare organizations, health professionals, and the public.
  • In 2010, the report “Global Consensus for Social Accountability of Medical Schools” outlined ten strategic directions to achieve this goal.
  • In 2019, the article “Accrediting Excellence for medical school impact on population health” was published in Education for Health, setting standards for excellence in socially accountable medical schools.
• How to Meet Local Priority Health Needs: 3-4-5Social Accountability Strategy
  • Three-Tiered Strategy
    1. Identify needs and determinants in society(upstream)
    2. Adapt and transform responses (process)
    3. Follow-up to measure impact (downstream)
• Four Reference Values
  1. Quality for person-centred care
  2. Equity
  3. Relevance to context
  4. Cost-effectiveness
• Partnerships with Five Key Actors
  1. Public authorities
  2. Health organizations
  3. Academic institutions
  4. Health Professionals and associates
  5. Civil society

What is Accreditation?

• Accreditation is a process by which institutions and programs voluntarily undergo an extensive peer evaluation of their compliance with accepted standards for educational quality.

Why is accreditation a lever for social accountability?

• Accreditation can be a peer-review tool used to ensure socially accountable medical schools.
• It brings attention to the community needs in policies and academic activities.
• It requires the robust engagement of faculty with partners in the pentagram partnership plus.
• It leads to interdisciplinary student-community“ service learning” opportunities
• Schools commit to define, develop, and assess its students’ professional development.
• It promotes faculty recognition and promotion by supporting scholarship

Helpful Approaches to Promote Change

• Generalist: setting individuality of institutions aside, schools look out to the communities they serve and shape approaches to their needs
• Self-Assessing: reflect on practices and evaluate progress with tools such as the ISAT (https://socialaccountabilityhealth.org/self-assessment/)
• Strengths-Based: use appreciative inquiry to determine what is working well and how to channel strengths to grow

Looking Ahead

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ISAASC Moving Forward: Next Steps

1. Finalization and implementation of the standards-setting document
2. Sharing the tool with accreditation influencers across the globe
3. Promoting an approach for adaptation to health professional schools and health structures
4. Promoting a capacity building program to implement standards setting approach

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[1] We edited this summary to make it as succinct as possible and did not intentionally omit any substantive comments. How to reference this report: Larche, CL. (2023). Symposium Summary: What is Social Accountability? Building a common future for Social Accountability and Accreditation locally and globally. Centre for Social Accountability of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University. Accompanying inforgraphic citation: Larche, CL. (2023). What is Social Accountability? Building a common future for Social Accountability and Accreditation locally and globally.[Infographic].

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