Human Resources for Health (08/17/23) Vol. 21, No. 65 Coria, Alexandra L.; Hassan, Areej; Huang, Jui-Yen; et al.

A comparison of pediatric postgraduate medical education (PGME) program accreditation with the World Federation for Medical Education's (WFME) PGME recommendations sought to identify global variability in the programs and possible improvement strategies. The researchers investigated 19 national, regional and global PGME accreditation protocols, with two raters per protocol evaluating 36 WFME-defined accreditation sub-areas as present, partially present or absent. They rated a median of 56% of WFME sub-areas present, 22% as partly present and 8.3% as absent in individual protocols. Professionalism/professional autonomy and learning settings were the only sub-areas fully addressed by all of the protocols. Trainee numbers, educational expertise and performance of qualified clinicians had the least likelihood of being present or partly present. Program content, trainee admission policy and selection, educational expertise, performance of qualified doctors and educational budget and resource allocation were least likely to be rated as fully present to quality levels equal to those outlined by WFME recommendations. Qualitative results indicated heterogeneity in structure, composition and duration of the accredited PGME programs reflected variation in accreditation protocols. Also evident was limited WFME-specified stakeholder engagement due to low feedback on long-term educational outcomes and community and health system requirements. A universal trainee-focused approach is also lacking, while more emphasis on ensuring quality of education, especially faculty development in teaching, is needed. "We hope that our analysis will inform the next iteration of [WFME standards], as well as the way that accreditation is used as a tool to promote high-quality healthcare for all the world's children," the researchers write.

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