Seventh-day Adventist Church education leaders are establishing formal guidelines for new medical, dental and pharmacy schools, requiring institutions to demonstrate the ability to support a program before earning accreditation.

The accreditation guidelines, which could go into effect April 1, were created partly in response to an increase in requests for new medical, dental and pharmacy schools from institutions around the world, said Ella Simmons, the world church vice president overseeing the church's Education department.

Simmons said there is a growing need for medical and health care around the world, and the Adventist Church has a unique responsibility to respond to such needs.

"However, along with this call to service and ministry comes the responsibility to provide care and healing that are of the highest quality," Simmons said.

According to the guidelines, institutions must show their ability to support, house and maintain a new school before they are granted conditional accreditation. The conditional accreditation is subject to a mid-year and final review during the trial school year.

The previous guidelines used by the Adventist Accrediting Association addressed general accreditation standards and didn't specifically target medical, dental and pharmacy schools, said Lisa Beardsley, associate secretary for the church's department of education.

Major contributors to the new guidelines included members of the Education department of the Adventist world church. The Adventist International Board of Education (IBE) and the Adventist Accrediting Association (AAA) oversaw the creation of the guidelines and will vote on the document at the end of the month.

If the two boards feel more work must be done on the document, the guidelines will be revised and voted on again during Annual Council, October 8 to 13, Beardsley said.

For more information and to see the complete guidelines, visit education.gc.adventist.org.