Accreditation of medical education in Brazil: an evaluation of seventy-six medical schools

We present the first results of the Accreditation System of Medical Schools (Sistema de Acreditação de Escolas Médicas – SAEME) in Brazil.

We evaluated the results of the accreditation of medical schools from 2015 to 2023. The self-evaluation form of the SAEME is specific for medical education programs and has eighty domains, which results in final decisions that are sufficient or insufficient for each domain. We evaluated the results of the first seventy-six medical schools evaluated by the SAEME.

Fifty-five medical schools (72.4%) were accredited, and 21 (27.6%) were not. Seventy-two (94.7%) medical schools were considered sufficient in social accountability, 93.4% in integration with the family health program, 75.0% in faculty development programs and 78.9% in environmental sustainability. There was an emphasis on SAEME in student well-being, with seventeen domains in this area, and 71.7% of these domains were sufficient. The areas with the lowest levels of sufficiency were interprofessional education, mentoring programs, student assessment and weekly distribution of educational activities.

Medical schools in Brazil are strongly committed to social accountability, integration with the national health system, environmental sustainability and student well-being programs. SAEME is moving from episodic evaluations of medical schools to continuous quality improvement policies.