The Carle Illinois College of Medicine has received preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education for its new engineering-infused medical school coming this July. 

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, “the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) is the U.S. Department of Education-recognized accrediting body for programs leading to the M.D. degree in the United States.”

The LCME oversees every medical school in the U.S., guarantees a quality education from the accredited programs and allows schools to recruit potential applicants.

Heather Wright, coordinator of recruitment at Carle Illinois College of Medicine, said that to gain accreditation from the LCME, they had to “map out every aspect of what the curriculum would look like, from coursework to what students experience. Teams worked together for 18 months to plan it all out.”

“The group or teams had to also plan for resources to be used by this program. That includes money, facilities on campus and clinical encounters being available at Carle (Foundation) Hospital,” said Nora Sew, director of admissions.

After gaining accreditation, the school is guaranteed to open July 2018.  Admissions is encouraging people to apply and saying that the application process is a little different from others.

“Our process is very nontraditional.  It focuses on the individual and their accomplishments. Applicants must make a portfolio. We are essentially looking for the next big thing in medicine,” Wright said.

According to the Carle Illinois College of Medicine website, applicants will be required to have already taken the the Medical College Admission Test before submitting their application on Nov. 1.

Wright said that both because many things are changing in the world of medicine and because of the physician shortage in the U.S., everyone has to start thinking of healthcare differently and brainstorming how to contribute to a happier and healthier society.

“The Carle Illinois M.D. program is designed for creative innovators ready to lead the revolution in healthcare delivery as physician-leaders and physician-innovators,” according to the website.

This program is an engineering-infused medical school which focuses on quantitative skills in addition to premedical requirements.

“The first two years focus on the cardiovascular system, and then the next two years, one would expect to spend time in the clinic focusing on bedside care and preparing physicians for working with the patient,” Wright said.

Every single course is infused with engineering, melding worlds in a course based on those themes.

This program allows physicians to advance in their training while being able to “fuse their medical knowledge with their engineering knowledge to fill in the gaps and create a new approach to their solutions,” Wright said.

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