WVU School of Medicine Receives Highest Level of Accreditation from the LCME
 In June 2007, the WVU School of Medicine’s M.D. degree received a full, unconditional, eight year reaccreditation by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME).
Accreditation is a process of quality assurance in postsecondary education that determines whether an institution or program meets established standards for function, structure, and performance.
The accreditation process also fosters institutional and program improvement. Accreditation by the LCME is required for schools to receive federal grants for medical education and to participate in federal loan programs. Most state boards of licensure require that U.S. medical schools be acc redited by the LCME, as a condition for licensure of their graduates.
Under the direction of James Shumway, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Medical Education, preparation for this site visit took over 18 months; and required the school to perform two comprehensive self studies before the visiting team arrived in February of 2007. More than 100 individuals were involved in the self study including faculty, course directors, administrators, students, and staff.
During the three day site visit, the LCME team identified numerous strengths of the medical school. A dynamic strategic plan, strong academic leadership, rural rotation for medical students, and a profound commitment to community service were among the many institutional strengths noted in their report.
 "It is always nice to have your program reviewed by national leaders and validate what we knew we had; a top rate educational program leading to the M.D. degree."
- Norman Ferrari, M.D., Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education |
The Learning Center: A Gathering Place for Tomorrow’s Health Care Professionals
 The Learning Center, located on the Morgantown Health Sciences Center campus, opened in early 2007. There are two floors in the new Learning Center addition. The first floor consists of a “commons area” which includes the historical Pylons as a focal point, a state of the art 200 seat auditorium, two 150 seat classrooms, 10 open study rooms, and a coffee shop. The second floor has eight study rooms, two 25 seat classrooms that can be connected into one classroom, study tables to seat 30 students and their laptops, 63 public computer stations, resource books, and on staff librarians to assist with questions.
The construction of the Learning Center is not complete. Additional renovations are in progress and will include additional study rooms, lounge space, a 50 student classroom, and offices for the library and technology support staff.
 "The Learning Center is the best investment the school has made. It is a great place to study and hang out. Before we did not have a good place to study and now we have a great place."
- Kelley Gannon, Medical School Class of 2009 |
Implementation of New Software Allows Students to Review Class Lectures On-Line
In response to student requests, Camtasia software was implemented at the WVU School of Medicine in January 2007. Camtasia software is used to record, edit and share high-quality screen video and audio on the Web, CD-ROM, and portable media players.
Camtasia is currently being used at the School of Medicine to record first and second year medical education courses. These on-line lectures are then posted on the School’s Intranet site so students can access and review files.
In 2008, the School of Medicine will expand the use of Camtasia to our Charleston and Eastern Divisions. In addition, we will investigate the software functionality that will enable students to download video recordings onto portable devices such as iPods®.
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