Originally Posted by neilc

in a recent thread, there was some discussion as to whether a graduate of an online basic science program would be able to gain licensure in the USA. in response to the OP's challenge, i sent the following email to nearly every state medical board. (i carefully worded it to avoid bias, and i avoided mentioning specific schools. i made it clear that if these practices were legal, i was fine with it...)

>Greetings!
>
>I am writing this email to obtain information pertaining medical licensing
>for international medical graduates.
>
>I have been made aware that some offshore medical schools offer the basic
>science portion of a students medical education to be completed on-line. I
>am interested in learning if your states would recognize any graduates from
>a school that offers on-line, internet or distance based education.
>
>Additionally, I have been made aware that some students of these programs
>may currently be working in teaching hospitals within the USA. And some
>graduates may be in residency programs in the states. If this is legal, than
>I have no problem. However, my concern is that some of these schools may be
>offering vague or misleading transcripts, and some graduates may not be
>disclosing that they completed basic sciences online.
>
>My questions are simple:
>1) do you accept online, internet based or distance learning medical
>education for licensure of international medical graduates?
>2) do you allow students of these schools to work in your state's hospitals?
>3) do you accept graduates of these programs into your state's graduate
>medical education (residency or fellowship) programs?
>
>
>If you are concerned about whether your state has any of these students, I
>would be happy to provide you with a list of schools that offer this
>curriculum.
>
>Thank you for your time and attention, and I look forward to your reply.

i will be posting all the replies, condensed to simple answers in order to avoid extensive editing. basically, i will answer the questions as to whether 1) licensure, 2) residency and 3) medical students doing rotations are allowed in these states if you completed online basic science curriculum.

hopefully this will provide good information for all of you attending or considering these type of schools)

(methods: i retrieved email addresses from the fsmb.org website specific for licensing information whenever possible. if that was not possible, i sent it to the general inquiries email. if there was no email available, i did not pursue it any further.)