Navigating the Global Landscape of Social Obligation in Medical Education: An Independent Comprehensive Exploration
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Abstract
This paper examines social accountability in medical education, focusing on its potential to address health inequities. Social accountability, as defined by the World Health Organization, encourages medical institutions to align education, research, and service activities with community health priorities. Through frameworks like ASPIRE and CARE, medical schools worldwide are incorporating social accountability, with notable examples such as Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) and Patan Academy of Health Sciences serving under-resourced communities. However, challenges remain, including the absence of standardized assessment metrics, resource limitations, and varied interpretations of social accountability across regions. International efforts underscore the importance of community collaboration in developing socially accountable curricula. In India, social accountability initiatives address healthcare challenges through community placements, telemedicine, and collaborations with global partners. The Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) model presents an opportunity to integrate social responsibility across training and patient care. Despite advancements, there is a need for adaptable frameworks and tools to measure the impact of social accountability in diverse contexts. This paper advocates for a unified yet context-sensitive approach, allowing institutions to respond effectively to local health needs while contributing to broader global health goals. Limitations include the study’s focus on existing global practices, without detailing novel, region-specific strategies for implementing and assessing social accountability programs.
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18. Yoo HH, Kim MK, Yoon YS, Lee KM, Lee JH, Hong SJ, et al. Change of accreditation standards of medical schools by the Korean institute of medical education and evaluation from 2000 to 2019. J Educ Eval Health Prof 2020;17:2.
19. Lim MS, Huh S. Goodness of fit of the items used in the 2nd cycle of evaluation and accreditation of medical schools by the Korea Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation based on the Rasch model. J Educ Eval Health Prof 2019;16:28.
20. Kaufman A, Scott MA, Andazola J, Fitzsimmons-Pattison D, Parajón L. Social accountability and graduate medical education. Fam Med 2021;53:632-7.
21. Abdalla M, Taha M, Wadi M, Khalafalla H. What makes a medical school socially accountable? A qualitative thematic review of the evaluation of social accountability of medical schools in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. East Mediterr Health J 2022;28:381-9.
22. Leinster S. Evaluation and assessment of social accountability in medical schools. Med Teach 2011;33:673-6.
23. Emadzadeh A, Bazzaz MM, Noras MR, Karimi S. Social accountability of the curriculum in medical education: A review on the available models. Future Med Edu J 2016;6:31-7.
24. Barber C, van der Vleuten C, Leppink J, Chahine S. Social Accountability Frameworks and Their Implications for Medical Education and Program Evaluation: A Narrative Review. Acad Med 2020;95:1945-54.
25. Wood B, Bohonis H, Ross B, Cameron E. Comparing and using prominent social accountability frameworks in medical education: moving from theory to implementation in Northern Ontario, Canada. Can Med Educ J 2022;13:45-68.
26. WFME. World Federation for Medical Education Global Standards for Quality Improvement: Basic Medical Education. (Accessed 2022; at https://wfme.org/standards/bme/.)
27. Sanaii M, Mosalanejad L, Rahmanian S, Sahraieyan A, Dehghani A. Reflection on the future of medical care: Challenges of social accountability from the viewpoints of care providers and patients. J Adv Med Educ Prof 2016;4:188-94.
28. Aretz HT. Some thoughts about creating healthcare professionals that match what societies need Med Teach 2011;33:608-13
29. Woolley T, Clithero-Eridon C, Elsanousi S, Strasser R. Socially accountable health professional education: An innovative approach in rural and underserved communities. Educ Health 2017;30:119-23.
30. Mihan A, Muldoon L, Leider H, Tehfe H, Fitzgerald M, Fournier K, et al. Social accountability in undergraduate medical education: A narrative review. Educ Health(Abingdon) 2022;35:3-8.
31. Mahdavynia S, Larijani SS, Mirfakhraee H, Zandieh Z, Olamaeian F, Tayebi A, et al. The impact of socially accountable health professional education: Systematic review. J Family Med Prim Care 2022;11:7543-8.
32. Sa B, Patrick C, Pascall O, Patrick J, Pierre S, Pillai D, et al. Knowledge, attitudes and Institutional Readiness towards Social Accountability as perceived by Medical Students at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. Int Med Educ 2023;2:11-25.
33. Clithero-Eridon A, Albright D, Ross A. Conceptualising social accountability as an attribute of medical education. Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med 2020;12:e1-8.
34. Mohammadi M, Bagheri M, Jafari P, Bazrafkan L. Motivating medical students for social accountability in medical schools. J Adv Med Educ Prof 2020;8:90-9.
35. Leigh-Hunt N, Gorman D, Cairns JM, Lloyd-Williams F. Social accountability in medical education: A novel approach for enhancing public health impact. Med Teach 2015;37:813-9.
36. Preston R, Larkins S, Taylor J, Judd J. From personal to global: Understandings of social accountability from stakeholders at four medical schools. Med Teach 2016;38:987-94.
37. Amutuhaire T. Higher education and social responsibility: a proposal for internationalization of university—community engagements; perspectives from Uganda. SN Soc Sci 2023;3:161
38. Golechha M. Healthcare agenda for the Indian government. Indian J Med Res 2015;141:151-3.
39. Supe A, Burdick WP. Social responsibility in health professions education in the United States. J Vet Med Educ 2006;33:239-47.
40. Patel V, Parikh R, Nandraj S, Balasubramaniam P, Narayan K, Paul VK, et al. Assuring health coverage for all in India. Lancet 2015;386:2422-35.
41. Dandekar S, Mhatre R, Mohanna K. Perceptions of faculty toward “social obligation” at an Indian medical school. Educ Health 2021;34:48-54.
42. Dandekar SP. The different shades of social obligation and medical colleges in India: AHPE News Bulletin. (Accessed Jan; 2018; at https://ahpe.in/the-different-shades-of-social-obligation-and-medical-colleges-in-india-dr-sucheta-dandekar/.)
43. Supe A, Burdick WP. Challenges and issues in medical education in India. Acad Med 2006;81:1076-80.
44. Rezaeian M, Pocock L. Social accountability-a challenge for global medical schools. Middle East J Fam Med 2011;7:16.
45. Supe A. Designing a dynamic contextual curriculum. Int J Adv Med Health Res 2016;3:55.
46. Caccia N, Nakajima A, Kent N. Competency-based medical education: the wave of the future. J Obstet Gynaecol Can 2015;32:349-53.
2. World Health Organization. WHO called to return to the declaration of Alma-Ata. Geneva: World Health Organization;1978.
3. Strasser R, Neusy AJ. Context counts: training health workers in and for rural and remote areas. Bull World Health Organ 2010;88:777-82.
4. Boelen C, Heck JE, World Health Organization. Defining and measuring the social accountability of medical schools. World Health Organization; 1995.
5. Global Consensus for Social Accountability of Medical Schools. (Accessed Dec 1; 2012; at http://www.healthsocialaccountability.org.)
6. Boelen C, Woollard R. Social accountability: the extra leap to excellence for educational institutions. Med Teach 2011;33:614-9.
7. Ritz SA, Beatty K, Ellaway RH. Accounting for social accountability: developing critiques of social accountability within medical education. Educ Health (Abingdon) 2014;27:152-7.
8. Gibbs T. Education for social accountability in medical schools in Australia and New Zealand. Educ Health 2011;24:489.
9. United Nations. Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. (Retrieved from https://sdgs.un.org/goals, 2015.)
10. Ross BM, Cameron E. Socially Accountable Medical Education: Our Story Might Not Be Yours. High Educ Stud 2021;11:114-20.
11. Dash NR, Taha MH, Shorbagi S, Abdalla ME. Evaluation of the integration of social accountability values into medical education using a problem-based learning curriculum. BMC Med Educ 2022;22:181.
12. Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta ZA, Cohen J, Crisp N, Evans T, et al. Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. Lancet 2010;376:1923-58.
13. Kruk ME, Gage AD, Arsenault C, Jordan K, Leslie HH, Roder-DeWan S, et al. High-Quality Health Systems Commission Expert Group. High-quality health systems in the Sustainable Development Goals era: Time for a revolution. Lancet Glob Health 2018;6:e1196-252.
14. Masud N, Alenezi S, Alsayari O, Alghaith D, Alshehri R, Albarrak D, et al. Social accountability in Medical Education: students’ perspective. Front Educ 2022;7:868245.
15. Prihatiningsih TS, Kamal Y, Woollard R, Fisher J, Abdalla ME, Boelen C. Social accountability and accreditation: impacting health system performance and population health. Soc Innov J 2020;3.
16. Ahmed MH, Abdalla ME, Taha MH. Why social accountability of medical schools in Sudan can lead to better primary healthcare and excellence in medical education? J Fam Med Prim Care 2020;9:3820-5.
17. Alrebish SA, Taha MH, Ahmed MH, Abdalla ME. Commitment towards a better future for medical education in Saudi Arabia: the efforts of the college of medicine at Qassim University to become socially accountable. Med Educ Online 2020;25:1710328.
18. Yoo HH, Kim MK, Yoon YS, Lee KM, Lee JH, Hong SJ, et al. Change of accreditation standards of medical schools by the Korean institute of medical education and evaluation from 2000 to 2019. J Educ Eval Health Prof 2020;17:2.
19. Lim MS, Huh S. Goodness of fit of the items used in the 2nd cycle of evaluation and accreditation of medical schools by the Korea Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation based on the Rasch model. J Educ Eval Health Prof 2019;16:28.
20. Kaufman A, Scott MA, Andazola J, Fitzsimmons-Pattison D, Parajón L. Social accountability and graduate medical education. Fam Med 2021;53:632-7.
21. Abdalla M, Taha M, Wadi M, Khalafalla H. What makes a medical school socially accountable? A qualitative thematic review of the evaluation of social accountability of medical schools in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. East Mediterr Health J 2022;28:381-9.
22. Leinster S. Evaluation and assessment of social accountability in medical schools. Med Teach 2011;33:673-6.
23. Emadzadeh A, Bazzaz MM, Noras MR, Karimi S. Social accountability of the curriculum in medical education: A review on the available models. Future Med Edu J 2016;6:31-7.
24. Barber C, van der Vleuten C, Leppink J, Chahine S. Social Accountability Frameworks and Their Implications for Medical Education and Program Evaluation: A Narrative Review. Acad Med 2020;95:1945-54.
25. Wood B, Bohonis H, Ross B, Cameron E. Comparing and using prominent social accountability frameworks in medical education: moving from theory to implementation in Northern Ontario, Canada. Can Med Educ J 2022;13:45-68.
26. WFME. World Federation for Medical Education Global Standards for Quality Improvement: Basic Medical Education. (Accessed 2022; at https://wfme.org/standards/bme/.)
27. Sanaii M, Mosalanejad L, Rahmanian S, Sahraieyan A, Dehghani A. Reflection on the future of medical care: Challenges of social accountability from the viewpoints of care providers and patients. J Adv Med Educ Prof 2016;4:188-94.
28. Aretz HT. Some thoughts about creating healthcare professionals that match what societies need Med Teach 2011;33:608-13
29. Woolley T, Clithero-Eridon C, Elsanousi S, Strasser R. Socially accountable health professional education: An innovative approach in rural and underserved communities. Educ Health 2017;30:119-23.
30. Mihan A, Muldoon L, Leider H, Tehfe H, Fitzgerald M, Fournier K, et al. Social accountability in undergraduate medical education: A narrative review. Educ Health(Abingdon) 2022;35:3-8.
31. Mahdavynia S, Larijani SS, Mirfakhraee H, Zandieh Z, Olamaeian F, Tayebi A, et al. The impact of socially accountable health professional education: Systematic review. J Family Med Prim Care 2022;11:7543-8.
32. Sa B, Patrick C, Pascall O, Patrick J, Pierre S, Pillai D, et al. Knowledge, attitudes and Institutional Readiness towards Social Accountability as perceived by Medical Students at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. Int Med Educ 2023;2:11-25.
33. Clithero-Eridon A, Albright D, Ross A. Conceptualising social accountability as an attribute of medical education. Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med 2020;12:e1-8.
34. Mohammadi M, Bagheri M, Jafari P, Bazrafkan L. Motivating medical students for social accountability in medical schools. J Adv Med Educ Prof 2020;8:90-9.
35. Leigh-Hunt N, Gorman D, Cairns JM, Lloyd-Williams F. Social accountability in medical education: A novel approach for enhancing public health impact. Med Teach 2015;37:813-9.
36. Preston R, Larkins S, Taylor J, Judd J. From personal to global: Understandings of social accountability from stakeholders at four medical schools. Med Teach 2016;38:987-94.
37. Amutuhaire T. Higher education and social responsibility: a proposal for internationalization of university—community engagements; perspectives from Uganda. SN Soc Sci 2023;3:161
38. Golechha M. Healthcare agenda for the Indian government. Indian J Med Res 2015;141:151-3.
39. Supe A, Burdick WP. Social responsibility in health professions education in the United States. J Vet Med Educ 2006;33:239-47.
40. Patel V, Parikh R, Nandraj S, Balasubramaniam P, Narayan K, Paul VK, et al. Assuring health coverage for all in India. Lancet 2015;386:2422-35.
41. Dandekar S, Mhatre R, Mohanna K. Perceptions of faculty toward “social obligation” at an Indian medical school. Educ Health 2021;34:48-54.
42. Dandekar SP. The different shades of social obligation and medical colleges in India: AHPE News Bulletin. (Accessed Jan; 2018; at https://ahpe.in/the-different-shades-of-social-obligation-and-medical-colleges-in-india-dr-sucheta-dandekar/.)
43. Supe A, Burdick WP. Challenges and issues in medical education in India. Acad Med 2006;81:1076-80.
44. Rezaeian M, Pocock L. Social accountability-a challenge for global medical schools. Middle East J Fam Med 2011;7:16.
45. Supe A. Designing a dynamic contextual curriculum. Int J Adv Med Health Res 2016;3:55.
46. Caccia N, Nakajima A, Kent N. Competency-based medical education: the wave of the future. J Obstet Gynaecol Can 2015;32:349-53.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 62 No 2 (2024) | |
| Section | Review Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/acta.v62i2.17033 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Social accountability Global health education Competency-based medical education (CBME) | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
How to Cite
1.
P. Dandekar S, Rege N, Mahdi F. Navigating the Global Landscape of Social Obligation in Medical Education: An Independent Comprehensive Exploration. Acta Med Iran. 2024;62(2):48-54.
