Towards a continuing quality improvement culture through the WFME recognition programme

The World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) established the Recognition Programme (RP) to improve the quality of medical education accreditation worldwide. This study aims to evaluate the impact of recognition from the perspective of recognised accreditation agencies. We emailed all WFME-recognised accrediting agencies with a survey containing five open-ended questions seeking their perspectives on recognition impact on agencies, medical education and health outcomes. Data was collected from July to August 2024. Open coding of results aggregated across questions followed by thematic analysis, generated themes organised under the three evaluated impact areas. 35 of 45 agencies responded. All experienced benefits of WFME recognition such as improved accreditation quality or enhanced national and international credibility. Challenges included tensions between the RP and the local context, and resource requirements. Early signs of improvement in the quality of medical education driven by recognition were observed. This first study of the WFME RP indicates significant benefits of recognition to the agencies by improving accreditation quality and credibility as well as the establishment of a continuing quality improvement (CQI) culture within agencies and accredited medical schools.世界医学教育联合会（World Federation for Medical Education, WFME）设立认证认可项目（Recognition Programme, RP），旨在提升全球医学教育认证的整体质量。本研究拟从已获认可的认证机构视角，评估该项目的实施影响。我们向所有WFME认证的认证机构发送了调查问卷，问卷包含5道开放式问题，以征集其关于认可项目对机构自身、医学教育及健康结局的影响的观点。数据采集时段为2024年7月至8月。研究首先对跨问题汇总的结果开展开放式编码，随后进行主题分析，最终生成的主题被归类于三大预设评估影响领域。本次调研共发放45份问卷，回收有效回复35份。所有受访机构均提及WFME认可带来的切实收益，包括认证质量提升、国内与国际公信力增强等。调研同时识别出两类挑战：一是认证认可项目与本土实践环境间的适配张力，二是相关资源投入需求。此外，研究观察到，在认可项目的驱动下，医学教育质量的改善已初现端倪。这项针对WFME认证认可项目的首个系统性研究表明，该项目可为认证机构带来显著收益：不仅提升了认证质量与行业公信力，还推动各认证机构及获认证医学院校建立起持续质量改进（continuous quality improvement, CQI）的文化氛围。