The Ateneo de Zamboanga University’s School of Medicine (AdZU-SOM) is this year’s recipient of the Charles Boelen International Social Accountability Award from the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC). The award is given to organizations in recognition of their professional accomplishments exemplary of the principles of social accountability.
“This is the first time that the AFMC, which represents Canada’s 17 faculties of medicine, is conferring this international recognition to a Medical School outside Canada,” reported AdZU President Fr Karel San Juan SJ. Past recipients of this award include the Training for Health Equity Network (TheNet, New York) in 2017, the Francophone International Action-Research Project on the Social Accountability of Faculties of Medicine (Canada) in 2016, and the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) in 2015.
SOM Dean Fortunato Cristobal stated that the award represents the commitment of the SOM in health reforms in medical education. He explained that social accountability among medical schools, as defined by Boelen (advocate of Social Accountability in medical education after whom the award was named) and Heck, means producing highly competent professionals equipped to respond to the changing challenges of healthcare through re-orientation of their education, research and service commitments, the effect of which is felt by the communities served.
Fr San Juan and Dr Cristobal will receive the award during the 2018 Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME), to be held on April 28 to May 1, 2018 at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
In a related development, AdZU-SOM partner school McMaster University Department of Family Medicine (DFM) of Canada, posted on its website, a congratulatory message to AdZU-SOM, on receiving what it said was a well-deserved award.
AdZU-SOM and DFM have a partnership on faculty development projects since 2002. One of the largest of these engagements is the Community Health Assessment Program in the Philippines, a random control trial that adapts and tests a community-based health intervention model.
