FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine Granted Preliminary Accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education
Recruitment to Begin for Palm Beach County’s First Public School of Medicine Newswise — Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine has been granted preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) and may now start recruiting students for the College’s charter medical school class that will begin in the fall 2011. The LCME is the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to a medical degree in U.S. and Canadian medical schools. The LCME is a joint committee of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association.
“This is truly a historic day for Florida Atlantic University and our surrounding communities throughout South Florida,” said Bob Stilley, chair of FAU’s Board of Trustees. “FAU has taken an important step to educate aspiring new doctors and address our communities’ needs for improved access to healthcare.”
The College has developed a new and innovative curriculum titled “Integrated Patient Focused Curriculum” (IPFC), which features early and continuous community-based clinical experiences and problem-based learning with emphasis on small-group and self-directed learning. World-class faculty in the College will provide a student-centered and patient-focused approach that includes clinical experiences with local physicians, health departments and hospitals, and a state-of-the-art Simulation Center. The curriculum also provides the integration of a rigorous foundation in basic and clinical biomedical sciences with the social and behavioral aspects of medicine.
“FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine is destined to make its mark in the field of biomedical research and discovery,” said FAU President Mary Jane Saunders. “With the innovative curriculum and partnerships it has in place, the education that students will receive is groundbreaking.”
A key component of the innovative curriculum is early exposure to patients and the actual practice of medicine. To that end, the College has established relationships with several prominent area hospitals that will serve as sites for clerkships, hospital-based electives and residencies. During clinical trainings, students will have the opportunity to work side-by-side with physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of patients, applying knowledge learned from the first two years of study to real-life situations.
“We reached this milestone thanks to the dedication of our FAU team and the overwhelming assistance we have received from our community, our supporters and the Florida Legislature,” said Dr. Michael L. Friedland, M.D., dean and vice president for medical programs in the College. “I look forward to opening our doors to some of the brightest and most compassionate young individuals as we guide them to become medical doctors who will live, work and serve in our communities.”
The College has signed affiliations with eight top-ranked hospitals in Broward and Palm Beach counties including: Boca Raton Regional Hospital; Delray Medical Center; West Boca Medical Center; St. Mary’s Medical Center; JFK Medical Center; Bethesda Memorial Hospital; Cleveland Clinic Florida; and Memorial Healthcare System, including Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. The College also has forged strong relationships with more than 250 community physicians.
The College’s four-year medical program will capitalize on FAU’s existing strengths in basic, applied and translational biomedical research which are centered on understanding the molecular and cellular bases of human diseases, particularly those that afflict the growing aging population. FAU has partnered with The Scripps Research Institute, Florida (TSRI) to offer a dual M.D./Ph.D. degree, with the medical degree conferred by FAU and the doctorate conferred by The Scripps Research Institute’s Kellogg School of Science and Technology, a school whose graduate programs are consistently ranked among the top in the nation. The FAU-TSRI partnership will provide all FAU medical students, whether or not they are in the M.D./Ph.D. program, with an invaluable opportunity to interact with Scripps Kellogg School of Science and Technology faculty.
FAU has received strong support from the Florida Board of Governors and from the Florida Legislature, which approved legislation creating the College in April 2010, and has already fully funded the medical school for its total enrollment of 256 students. FAU’s tuition will be equivalent to the average tuition charged by Florida’s other public medical education programs.
Through the generosity of the Schmidt Family Foundation, the medical school will be housed in a $20-million, 95,000 square-foot facility on the Boca Raton campus, designed specifically for the medical education program and for FAU’s masters, doctoral and certificate programs in the biomedical sciences.
“For nearly 50 years, FAU has worked to raise the bar academically one program at a time,” said Nancy Blosser, past chair of FAU’s Board of Trustees. “The new medical school adds a new dimension to this university’s landscape and will truly raise FAU’s prominence throughout this country.”
For admissions information or to learn more about FAU’s College of Medicine, visit http://med.fau.edu.
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About Florida Atlantic University:Florida Atlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses and sites. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university, with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering & Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
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