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.
