The Japan Accreditation Council for Medical Education, established in 2015, has evaluated the education programs of 82 medical schools in Japan. In this manuscript, we review the results of the evaluation of medical education and discuss the challenges to be addressed based on global standards.

Japan Accreditation Council for Medical Education, JACME, was established in 2015. Since then, JACME has evaluated education programs in medical schools based on the global standards set by World Federation for Medical Education. 54 medical schools have been recognized as of June 1, 2021.In this paper, we review past evaluations and discuss the impact and challenges of the field-specific evaluation of medical education.

We evaluated body constituent patterns of 130 consecutive patients with symptomatic acute cerebral infarction. They comprise lacunar infarction (n = 47), atherothrombotic infarction (n = 70), cardiogenic embolism (n = 11), and other type of infarction (n = 2). We compared body constituent patterns between them and 93 consecutive patients with other neurological diseases of the same age. We used qi-ketsu-sui scores to evaluate body constituent patterns in all cases. Qi-ketsu-sui scores measure six factors : qi deficiency (kikyo), qi stagnation (kiutsu), qi counterflow (kigyaku), blood deficiency (kekkyo), blood stasis (oketsu), and fluid retention (suitai). As a result of multivariate model analysis, symptomatic acute cerebral infarction had the largest weight of blood stasis and an adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) was 4.6 (2.45-8.91). Even when gender as a confounding factor was adjusted by stratified analysis, adjusted odds ratios of blood stasis (95% confidence interval) were 7.46 (3.02-20.25) for males and 2.63 (1.02-7.11) for females, and those were maximum. The point (median, interquartile range) of blood stasis was more severe in acute cerebral infarction (24 points, 18-33 points) than other neurological diseases (16 points, 9-23 points). We examined relationships between body constituent patterns and clinical disease type, severity at hospitalization, and sex in patients with symptomatic acute cerebral infarction. Ratio of blood stasis was the largest in any clinical disease type, severity and sex. Blood stasis seemed to be the most important factor in symptomatic acute cerebral infarction.

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of Japanese students who want to practice medicine in Japan after receiving their education in a Hungarian medical school and passing the Japanese national examination for medical practitioners. It is of great concern whether they received a sufficient amount of medical education to meet the public trust. Researchers from Japan visited Hungary and observed their medical education system. There are 4 national medical schools that have international courses for educating students from abroad in English. Three of those schools also offer education in German. The Japanese researchers observed international courses being taught in English at Semmerwise University in Budapest and Debrechen University in Debrechen, the 2nd biggest city in Hungary. Although the international education system is not much different from other European countries, some systems such as small group tutorial education, assessment via oral examination, and the requirement of a graduation thesis stood out as key strengths of the Hungarian education system.

Japan Accreditation Council for Medical Education (JACME) was established in 2015 and recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) in 2017. The accreditation by JACME for medical education programs formally and fairly started in April, 2017. It consists of internal quality assurance through self-evaluation by applying medical schools and external quality assurance by the JACME committee. Although it is tough work for medical schools to receive accreditation, it is mostly accepted as being useful for quality improvement and the enhancement of medical education.

Japan Accreditation Council for Medical Education (JACME) was established in 2015 and recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) in 2017. The accreditation by JACME for medical education programs formally and fairly started in April, 2017. It consists of internal quality assurance through self-evaluation by applying medical schools and external quality assurance by the JACME committee. Although it is tough work for medical schools to receive accreditation, it is mostly accepted as being useful for quality improvement and the enhancement of medical education.

Introduction: Compared with faculties in clinical and medical research departments, those in medical departments are not appropriately evaluated in terms of their contributions to or achievements in medical education. Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate the contributions of medical department faculties to medical education, and to examine differences in contributions according to duty positions and specialties.

Methods: Five-grade self-assessments in relation to 20 items on a rating form for performance in medical education, which was developed by the Japan Society for Medical Education's Committee for Performance Evaluation, were carried out by medical department faculties in Japanese universities. The data were then totalized and analyzed.

Results and Discussion: Although faculties belonging to departments other than medical education units did not actively participate in examinations or the education system, they still made contributions to lectures and practice. In addition, faculties with positions with more duties tended to show greater participation in the education system.

Conclusion: Based on these findings, we recommend the use of a rating form as a standard scale to evaluate performance in medical education.

 Accreditation for medical education has been introduced in several countries to ensure and improve the quality of education programs in medical schools. In the standards for accreditation, the assessment of faculty activity and development is described as important to improve medical education. The balance of teaching, research, and service functions is considered in the assessment. The results of the appraisal are reflected in the faculty's appointments, promotions, and compensation increases in many countries.

　The education program in all medical schools in Japan has been studied and analyzed every 2 years since 1974 by the curriculum committee of the Association of Japan Medical Colleges. Based on the most recent analysis in 2015, the marked innovation of medical education, such as an integrated curriculum, active learning, and clinical clerkship, was recognized.

　Based on our experience of visiting the Medical Council of Canada and observing large-scale OSCE (objective structured clinical examination) in Canadian Qualifying Examination Part II , we report differences operation system, implementation status, and examination questions compared to Japan. This very important examination after the post-graduate residency program may provide several invaluable tips when we introduce nation-wide clinical performance examinations.