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No accreditation problems, Dunn reports
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has no accreditation problems, contrary to "concerns and misperceptions" in the local media, the UB Council was told on Monday.
David L. Dunn, vice president for health sciences, updated council members in response to recent media reports that the radiology residency program was at risk of losing its accreditation.
The radiology residency program is one of 55 such training programs in the medical school, and is the only one having serious problems, Dunn said.
"How do we benchmark quality?" he asked. "Is UB's medical school a quality medical school in terms of its GME (graduate medical education)?"
It is, Dunn said.
"Forty-eight of the programs are fully accredited. There are some minor problems in some of the others. Radiology is the only standout."
Although the radiology program, which has six residents, has been threatened with probationary status, Dunn noted that UB already has proposed a restructuring of the program to the RRC, the residency review committee that governs program accreditation.
Responding to a question from council member Jonathan A. Dandes, president of Rich Baseball Operations, Dunn said the accreditation problem with the radiology program stems from the fact that the residency program has too many training sites—"that's a red flag for the RRC"—and what the RRC considers to be a "less-than-coherent educational program."
The program has to have a core curriculum, exams and readings, Dunn noted.
Moreover, "You have to lay out very clearly" how the residents progress through the years of the program, how the years differ in terms of education, and provide assurances that by the end of the third year they will have been trained in certain areas.
This was occurring with the radiology program, Dunn said, "but it was not clearly laid out" to the RRC.
He said that much depends on "how you characterize the program on paper. RRCs are very driven—I think in a good way—with how we explain things to them before they even arrive for the site visit."
"I don't think we were explaining it well," he added.
Dunn pointed out that one of the factors against graduate medical training at UB is the fact that there is no university hospital; residents must be trained in numerous local hospitals.
He said he is working with Buffalo General to "put a mix of radiologists together who will effectively train the residents."
He said he has spoken with many radiologists in the area about the issue. They want to be part of solution; many of them want to work with the residents."
"The medical school has no accreditation problems—in fact, it got an 'A plus,'" Dunn told council members. "Graduate medical education—there's one significant program that's a standout among 55-751 residents."
In other business, the council received an update on the UB 2020 strategic planning process with a presentation on the strategic strength Civic Engagement and Public Policy.
Nils Olsen, professor and dean of the UB Law School, and Robert Granfield, professor in the Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences, explained that the strength is one of the broadest areas of all the 10 strategic strengths of UB 2020.
"We tried to be inclusive and reached across the university in order to identify units," said Granfield.
He noted that although the term "civic engagement" often refers to student involvement in the community, the term has a different meaning for faculty at a Research I public university.
"We're talking about what we have to offer: the generation and distribution of knowledge, whose aim it is to enrich public debate about current and important issues—social, cultural, economic, political, health, ethical, religious; to confront the multiple publics that make up our landscape today," he said.
"It's the recognition that we have an obligation to participate in the world of ideas and the conversation of ideas with the community."
Public policy, on the other hand, involves what faculty members do best—research and scholarship, Granfield pointed out.
"Research and scholarship that is focused on public policy, oriented to providing a critical assessment of the impact of government policy at multiple levels—local, regional, state and at a national level across a variety of issues," he said.
Granfield and Olsen cited seven areas of "strategic opportunity" within the general strength that will be pursued. "We're hoping to synergize these areas," which already are strengths at the university, Granfield said.
They are economic development and technology transfer; law and justice; pre-K through 16 education; international and cross-border issues; state, local and regional governance; water resources; and public policy studies.