Offshore medical school

An offshore medical school is a medical school that caters "primarily to foreign (North American) students, wishing to practice medicine in the US and Canada" according to the World Bank, compared to local public schools that focus on their home nation. Nonetheless, the local economies often benefit from the academic and economic influence from those schools. Such schools are chiefly located in the Caribbean.

Caribbean offshore medical schools often specified in the Medical Doctor degree, while US and Canadian Medical Schools are often departments of universities who offer several degrees. The curriculum of offshore Medical Schools in the Caribbean follows the one in US, as they usually only offer two years of basic science study and use teaching hospitals or clinics in US or Canada, sometimes in UK for clinical training. The teachings often focus on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) certification process, and the measurement of performance is the passing rate of students in the exams. In most schools, passing of the USMLE Step 2 exam is required to graduate and get a M.D. degree.

In most schools, the academic calendar is divided into trimesters, with semesters starting in January, May and September. The lack of a summer break offers students a potentially faster route than US medical schools to a degree with a compressed curriculum.

Caribbean offshore medical schools have less than 5% local students and the rest are mainly from North America. They are also relatively older than their North America counterparts. As of 2004, the average ages in schools are 27–30 years old, and half of them are nurse, paramedic, physician assistant etc. on their second career. Whether a school has state board accreditation or is recognized by loan programs appear to have great influence on the number of applicants, and the effect is seen in the size of student body. Between 1993 and 2007, the mean age of first time ECFMG certification exam applicants from Caribbean offshore medical schools was 29.5 years, and 38% of the applicants were female. The passing rate were 57.4% for the USMLE Step 1 but results varies wildly by country.

Most educational faculty in Caribbean offshore schools are physicians or medical teachers from US or Canada, with at least a MD degree, some with PhDs. Lacking research faculties, the student-to-teacher ratio ranges between 9 and 13.

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