Developing Social Accountability Indicators at Medical Schools

Introduction: Medical education is constantly discussed by experts due to its close relationship with the public health from the perspectives of relevance, appropriateness and responsiveness to community needs. There is no consistent general model to evaluate the social accountability of medical schools. This study was conducted to develop indicators of social accountability in medical schools.

Methods: Criteria and indicators of social accountability were developed during three stages. In the first stage, after a deep review on the Global Consensus on Social Accountability of Medical Schools (GCSA) and several papers we developed baseline areas, criteria and indicators. In the second stage, during the first round of the Delphi, the tables draft was sent to twenty medical education experts. Then, comments were collected and classified in the first meeting of the focus group discussions and necessary reforms were implemented in the tables. In the third stage and second round of Delphi, the set of revisions were sent the same selected experts. The suggested reforms were applied after collecting the instructors’ comments in the second focus group discussions. Five members of the focus group discussions were selected based on their relevant knowledge and experience in social accountability issues.

Results: Ten areas, twenty-eight criteria and ninety-five indicators were developed after three stages of study with two rounds using the Delphi method and two focus group sessions. To clarify the criteria and indicators, we tried to make the developed indicators and criteria practical so that they could be used in the social accountability evaluation of medical schools.

Conclusion: According to the importance and key role of social accountability in the medical schools mission, using comprehensive indicators can result in better accreditation and evaluation of medical schools .This study has prepared applicable and comprehensive indicators for evaluation of different aspects of social accountability in medical schools.