fossildoc
07-26-2007, 08:27 PM
An unaccredited M.D. diploma is useful for lining a bird cage, but not for much else.
There's all types of accreditation, but the one used most often by prospective students reading this page is the "IMED" listing. A school gets this listing when the government in which the school is located certifies that it recognizes the medical school's right to operate in their territory, but this does not imply accreditation by the educational establishment of the host country as satisfying its own standards of medical education. Were that the case, Xavier graduates could practice in Aruba, St. George graduates could practice in Curaçao, etc.
But the listing does mean that one requirement for eligibility to take the ECFMG Step exams has been met. No IMED, no Step 1.
If you're not going to practice in a country that uses the ECFMG Steps -- which is most of the world outside of Canada and the U.S. -- lack of an IMED listing may be irrelevant. Otherwise, this should be your first requirement in finding a med school.
Startup schools may not be listed in IMED yet. If the school is fairly new, this is normal, but you would be an "Early Adopter" according to the book "Looking at Diffusion of Innovations" by Everett Rogers, if you enrolled in such a school. There is risk that the school will never be listed, but every school started in this situation, and built their base on the early adopters.
Various claims are made in these forums about a particular school being listed or not listed in one place or another. There's no subsitute for doing your own homework, so here's the IMED search site in which you can peruse the schools you are considering: IMED - FAIMER International Medical Education Directory - Search IMED (http://imed.ecfmg.org/search.asp) . IMED is a database maintained by FAIMER, which you see mentioned a lot in these forums; go to the parent directory of the above link and read all about them.
There's all types of accreditation, but the one used most often by prospective students reading this page is the "IMED" listing. A school gets this listing when the government in which the school is located certifies that it recognizes the medical school's right to operate in their territory, but this does not imply accreditation by the educational establishment of the host country as satisfying its own standards of medical education. Were that the case, Xavier graduates could practice in Aruba, St. George graduates could practice in Curaçao, etc.
But the listing does mean that one requirement for eligibility to take the ECFMG Step exams has been met. No IMED, no Step 1.
If you're not going to practice in a country that uses the ECFMG Steps -- which is most of the world outside of Canada and the U.S. -- lack of an IMED listing may be irrelevant. Otherwise, this should be your first requirement in finding a med school.
Startup schools may not be listed in IMED yet. If the school is fairly new, this is normal, but you would be an "Early Adopter" according to the book "Looking at Diffusion of Innovations" by Everett Rogers, if you enrolled in such a school. There is risk that the school will never be listed, but every school started in this situation, and built their base on the early adopters.
Various claims are made in these forums about a particular school being listed or not listed in one place or another. There's no subsitute for doing your own homework, so here's the IMED search site in which you can peruse the schools you are considering: IMED - FAIMER International Medical Education Directory - Search IMED (http://imed.ecfmg.org/search.asp) . IMED is a database maintained by FAIMER, which you see mentioned a lot in these forums; go to the parent directory of the above link and read all about them.