QI & Accreditation
The Cumming School of Medicine's (CSM) Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) office is dedicated to delivering outstanding clinical training, ensuring that graduating physicians are well-equipped to deliver high-quality healthcare to the residents of Alberta.
In order to achieve this goal, it is essential that each program provides distinctive, discipline-specific educational experiences that foster the development of competencies essential for autonomous medical practice.
All Residency training programs and Areas of Focused Competencies (AFC) programs at the University of Calgary are accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) or the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). This allows our institution and programs to meet the highest standard of education, through a quality improvement lens.
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What is Accreditation?
Accreditation is a peer-review process that evaluates residency programs against established standards to ensure they meet national quality standards for medical education. This comprehensive assessment ensures that our programs maintain the highest levels of educational excellence and continue to produce competent, skilled physicians.
The post graduate accreditation process in Canada is built around CanERA (Canadian Excellence in Residency Accreditation) which emphasizes consistent program quality, as defined by efficiency, safety, and continuous quality improvement.
For more details about CanERA, please visit About CanERA.
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Why It's Important?
- Ensures educational programs meet rigorous national standards
- Promotes continuous quality improvement in medical education
- Provides accountability to stakeholders
- Facilitates recognition of our programs' credentials nationally and internationally
- Drives innovation and advancement in medical education
- Supports the development of competent, well-trained physicians
The accreditation standards to which our institution and programs are currently being held accountable for include:
- General Standards of Accreditation for Institutions with Residency Programs
- General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs
- General Standards of Accreditation for Areas of Focused Competence Programs
- Program specific standards are also applicable and can be found here
- The Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs in Family Medicine
Our commitment to quality improvement, and in turn, accreditation, reflects our dedication to:
- Fostering a culture of continuous quality improvement
- Ensuring compliance with national standards
- Supporting program development and improvement
- Maintaining excellence in our post graduate medical education
- Preparing the next generation of medical professionals
The online accreditation management system is a central repository for narrative responses and documents, used to facilitate the entire accreditation process. All programs have access to their programs CanAMS site and are encouraged to maximize its use.
Access CanAMS portal here: https://www.canams.ca
For training on how to use CanAMS, you can access this resource - CanERA for University Personnel
We are also excited to announce that we now offer a CanAMS clinic - Dates coming soon.
If none of these methods work for you, please contact pgmeaccreditation@ucalgary.ca to set up a session with one of our team members.