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Accessibility
A measure of the ease with which a specific population can obtain appropriate health services and be served by facilities within the health care system. This concept is used to detect inequity in the availability of health services for different populations defined geographically, socially or in terms of their race, ethnicity, gender or clinical condition.

Accountability
Responsibility for the decisions and capability to explain to others or the public all undertaken activities to carry out what was obliged to do; to ensure reaching or making progress towards planned objectives or targets.

Accreditation
A self-regulatory process by which governmental, non-governmental, voluntary associations or other statutory bodies grant formal recognition to educational programs or institutions that meet stated criteria of educational quality. Educational programs or institutions are measured against certain standards by a review of written information, self-studies, site visits to the educational program, and thoughtful consideration of the findings by a review committee. Whereas programs or institutions are accredited , individual physicians are licensed or certified .

Administration
A system whereby public or private enterprises conduct their business. Administration is concerned with planning, programming and evaluation. Along with administration there must be consideration of management , which as a part of administration, is a rational technique enabling administrators to fully develop their human, technical and financial resources. The term administration is often used to denote broad policy and the term "management" to be the execution of such policy and a matter of subordinate concern.

American Medical Association (AMA)
According to its mission statement, this professional association represents the voice of the American medical profession and constitutes the partnership of physicians and their professional associations dedicated to promoting the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health. The AMA serves physicians and their patients by establishing and promoting ethical, educational, and clinical standards for the medical profession and by advocating the highest principle of all: the integrity of the physician/patient relationship.

Assessment
A system of evaluation of professional accomplishments using defined criteria and usually including an attempt at measurement either by grading on a rough scale or by assigning numerical value. The purpose of assessment in an educational context is to make a judgment about the level of skills or knowledge, to measure improvement over time, to evaluate strengths and weaknesses, to rank students for selection or exclusion, or to motivate. Assessment should be as objective and reproducible as possible. A reliable test should produce the same or similar scores on two or more occasions or if given by two or more assessors. The validity of a test is determined by the extent to which it measures whatever it sets out to measure. One can distinguish three types of assessment :
 

Formative assessment is testing that is part of the developmental or ongoing teaching/learning process. It should include delivery of feedback to the student.

Summative assessment is testing which often occurs at the end of a term or course, used primarily to provide information about how much the student has learned and how well the course was taught.

Criterion-referenced assessment refers to testing against an absolute standard such as an individual's performance against a benchmark.

Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE)
A worldwide association concerned with education in the medical and health care profession – teachers, curriculum developers, deans, administrators, researchers and students. AMEE works with the continuum of education and its quality, the facilitation of high quality research in medical education and serves as a source of advice on matters relating to medical education. AMEE assists with the development of skills required by medical teachers and facilitates the exchange of information on medical education. AMEE is concerned with the development of medical education to meet current and future needs, particularly in the European context. The AMEE Office is located at the Centre for Medical Education, University of Dundee, Scotland.

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
A nonprofit association consisting of the 125 accredited United States medical schools, the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools, more than 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, some 90 academic and professional societies representing 75,000 faculty members, and the nation's medical students and residents. The purpose of the AAMC is to improve health through the advancement of academic medicine, and in pursuing this purpose, the AAMC works "to strengthen the quality of medical education and training, to enhance the search for biomedical knowledge, to advance research in health services, and to integrate education into the provisions of effective health care." The AAMC is responsible for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) required of each applicant to medical school in the U.S. and Canada.