New committees to support the governance of WFME
The Review of WFME functions recommended the creation of a Risk Committee (RC) to identify, monitor and develop mitigation strategies for risks, as part of a range of new governance-related measures. The WFME Executive Council endorsed the recommendation to set up the RC.
The responsibilities of the RC will be to identify and monitor risks, review and update the WFME Risk Register highlighting and recording new risks, manage existing risks and develop strategies to mitigate all risks. The RC will liaise with the Finance Committee as appropriate.
The review also recommended the creation of a Finance Committee (FC). The objectives of the FC will include but will not be limited to: review the current expenditures and revenue streams and re-evaluate if need be, consider and assist in developing strategic planning, consider opportunities for new revenue streams, and in general probe and inspect any key financial matters.
To see the current membership of the WFME Risk and Finance Committees, please follow this link: https://wfme.org/about-wfme/executive-council/
Regional Presidents’ Forum
Another recommendation was to establish a platform for regular meetings of Presidents of Regional Associations for medical education. This recommendation was accepted exceptionally well among the Regional Presidents. In the first meeting, Professor Trevor Gibbs, AMEE was elected to chair the Forum.
The Forum is very keen to collaborate closely between regions and with the centre of WFME.
A new set of WFME standards
WFME published new principles-based standards for basic medical education in December 2020. The next step is to move on to converting the post graduate medical education (PGME) and continuing professional development (CPD) standards to the same principles-based approach. Currently, WFME with Professor Janet Grant as the lead person will carry out an initial consultation on the current PGME standards. A wide consultation on the draft version of the revised PGME standards will follow afterwards. The target is to have a full set of principles-based standards ready by the WFME World Conference 2022.
Also, a wide consultation on the new standards for distributed and distance learning (DDL) was completed in April 2021. The comments received were extremely thoughtful and supportive. The DDL standards will be finalised in the next few weeks.