Medical Schools’ Efforts to Build Social Accountability Indicators and Determinants in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: A Scoping Review

This review summarises medical schools’ efforts to develop social accountability (SA) determinants and indicators in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). The review used the Arksey and O’Malley framework to examine the literature on indicators and/or determinants of SA published in 1995–2021. As part of a broader project on SA, a first screening of various databases yielded 162 articles on SA in the region, and further filtering identified six articles specifically addressing the determinants/indicators of SA in two countries in the region. The Global Consensus for Social Accountability (GCSA) of Medical Schools was used to analyse the quality and content of the articles, which were assigned scores according to specific criteria of how comprehensively the medical schools addressed the 10 areas of the GCSA. The six identified publications describe the development of SA determinants and indicators in a country-specific context, but, while they make a positive contribution to measuring SA, they do not satisfactorily address some matters, including measuring impacts on local populations, the social determinants of health, primary health care approaches, policies for recruiting students, and indicating the quality of graduates in relation to community needs. This review makes recommendations on how to address these shortcomings. While SA is gaining momentum in the EMR, only a handful of countries have shared their experiences. Researchers are making efforts to turn SA guidelines into standards, but more focus and elaboration are required.