a review of defining standards process in basic medical education accreditation in mexico and wfme

today, through out the world, medical education has two critical needs: need for structural reform and innovative plans and then need for social accountability in terms of educational program quality and its effectiveness. educational assessment and accreditation could be considered as operational (executive) strategy to meet both needs. of outmost important as the first toward educational assessment and accreditation is the task of specifying standards for medical education both in terms of the institution and the educational program of the institution. since these standards constitute a new framework against which the medical institutes can measure themselves. here, in this article we have briefly reviewed the process of developing these standards by amfem (in mexico) and by wfme at an international level. we have tried to underlie two critical features common in both processes. first, the importance levels to defining the physicians' role in terms of what the society or better say, the health care system (as the representative of social health requirement) expects from a good physician. second, the thoughtful attempt to involve as many experts as possible in the process of developing the standards and providing opportunities to discuss the result of each stage of the specifying standard process.