SAN ANTONIO The University of Texas Health Science Center announced two doses of good news this week the return to full accreditation of its medical school after two years on probation and the $22.7 million renewal of a National Institutes of Health grant for another five years.

Probation didn't mean loss of accreditation. Still, second-year medical student Monica Ruiz, 23, called the announcement a big win for us and said students began clapping when they found out via email around lunchtime Monday.

Ruiz, of Rio Grande City, decided to attend medical school at the health science center after the Oct. 2011 vote by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education to place the school on probation for not complying with 10 aspects of its accreditation standards, largely related to the school's curriculum, faculty supervision and lack of centralized clinical activities.

The school's staff had worked hard for two years to remedy those problems, Dr. Francisco Gonzlez-Scarano, dean of the medical school, said Tuesday. He'd received word last week that the LCME had voted to lift the probationary status.

The committee accredits programs that lead to an M.D. in the United States and Canada. American schools need it to maintain eligibility for some federal grants and programs and for their graduates to be licensed by state boards and be eligible for residencies accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, according to the LCME website.

Gonzlez said the school redesigned its curriculum from an outdated lecture-driven version to one that emphasizes individual instruction intended to prepare students for lifelong learning as doctors. The school also moved supervision of faculty in seven basic science departments from the dean of the graduate school of biomedical sciences to the dean of the medical school, he said.

Clinical activities have also been centralized in a way that can be tracked by computer, he said.

Ruiz and fellow second-year medical student Kristopher Koch, 30, said they benefit from greater scheduling flexibility that enables them to do things like volunteering in clinics, shadowing a mentor or participating in student organizations.

I just don't know that I would have had the energy if I'd been in class from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Ruiz said.

Gonzlez said applications to the medical school increased during the probationary period, following a national trend, but said in instances where students weighed two schools, it could have been a factor in their final decisions.

Originally posted here:

UT Health Science Center medical school off probation