The Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) is an accrediting body for the education programmes and schools of medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, nursing and other health professions in the 15 member nations of the

Caribbean Community The Caribbean Community (abbreviated as CARICOM or CC) is an intergovernmental organisation that is a Political association, political and economic union of 15 member states (14 nation-states and one dependency) and five associated members thro ...

(CARICOM). CAAM-HP was established in 2003 and is headquartered in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

. The

US Department of Education US or Us most often refers to: * ''Us'' (pronoun), the objective case of the English first-person plural pronoun ''we'' * US, an abbreviation for the United States US, U.S., Us, us, or u.s. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Albums * ...

National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation The National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation is a committee within the US Department of Education US or Us most often refers to: * ''Us'' (pronoun), the objective case of the English first-person plural pronoun ''we'' * ...

(NCFMEA) recognizes CAAM-HP as a standard comparable to the standards used in medical schools in the United States.

Background and role

From 1948 until 2001, universities and colleges in the

Commonwealth Caribbean The Commonwealth Caribbean refers to a group of English-speaking world, English-speaking sovereign states in the Caribbean, including both island states and mainland countries in the Americas, that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations and ...

could and often were accredited by the

General Medical Council The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body that maintains the official register of physician, medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the pu ...

(GMC) of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Primarily this occurred with the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

(UWI) receiving full accreditation (with periodic visits and assessments as changes were made in medical education) and with some of the other schools established since 1974 in the Commonwealth Caribbean receiving limited registration status from the GMC. This international recognition of their degrees meant that the medical education programme offered at UWI allowed graduates to register freely in the UK and many other Commonwealth countries in order to practice. This practice by the GMC however was ended in 2001 as it sought to replace the original two-tier system of registration of overseas qualified doctors with a single method in keeping with European Union regulations regarding academic and professional training programmes. As a result the proposed system rendered unnecessary the need to continue accrediting overseas institutions, even those with previously recognized qualifications, leaving the UWI and other institutions without accreditation by an internationally recognized body. In parallel to these events there was a raft of establishments of "offshore" medical schools in the Caribbean starting in the 1970s, which catered almost exclusively to international students mainly from the United States and Canada. These medical schools were easier to establish in the Caribbean than in mainland North America, in part because unlike the medical schools in the US or Canada, they are not required by the

Liaison Committee on Medical Education The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) is an accrediting body for educational programs at schools of medicine in the United States and Canada.''Glossary.'' ACGME website. The LCME is sponsored by the Association of American Medical ...

(LCME; the accrediting body for medical education in the US and Canada) to do research and perform clinical training. Sometimes only needing a business licence in order to be opened, these offshore medical schools had been able to list in the International Medical Education Directory (IMED), which qualifies their students to undergo the

Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates According to the US Department of Education, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) is "the authorized credential evaluation and guidance agency for non-U.S. physicians and graduates of non-U.S. medical schools who seek ...

(ECFMG) certification process in order to begin residency or fellowship programmes in the US or Canada. The departments of education from both United States and Canada contacted the ECFMG and have required that all Caribbean offshore medical schools be at the standard of United States and Canadian medical schools. The ultimate outgrowth of this over the time was the announcement in 2010 by the ECFMG that effective in 2023, physicians applying for ECFMG Certification will be required to graduate from a medical school that has been appropriately accredited through a formal process that uses criteria comparable to those established for US medical schools by the LCME or that uses other globally accepted criteria, such as those put forth by the

World Federation for Medical Education World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) is a non-governmental organisation concerned with education and training of medical doctors worldwide. WFME's main objective is to "enhance the quality of medical education worldwide, with promotion of ...

(WFME). As a result of these developments up to 2001-2002 and the regional desire to ensure quality education and training within CARICOM for the UWI and other medical schools in the Caribbean, such as those established the University of Suriname in 1969 and at the

University of Guyana The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is Guyana's national and most prestigious higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: "To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of th ...

in 1985, as well as the offshore medical schools, a regional accreditation system was established. Thus, the Agreement establishing the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions was signed in November 2003 by 5 CARICOM Member States and the authority itself was launched shortly after in July 2004. As of 2019, 13 CARICOM Member States have signed up to the Agreement on CAAM-HP and are participating territories: Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago. Participation is open to all other CARICOM Member States and Associate Member States according to the Agreement, with the British Virgin Islands becoming the first Associate Member to sign on to the Agreement on 18 February 2020 at the 31st Intersessional Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government.CARICOM Development Fund To Be Restructured
/ref> On 20 May 2019, CAAM-HP also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Higher Education Science and Technology (MESCYT) of the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo to provide accreditation services for medical training programmes and to facilitate their acceptance by the 11 Universities of the Dominican Republic that have medical schools. Once established Authority looked at the standards of the GMC and the LCME, and developed comparable standards. These standards and processes were then adjudged to be compliant with international standards in 2012, following a review in 2011 by the WFME and the

Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to "support the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) as it promotes international health p ...

(FAIMER). With such international recognition granted only a few years after ECFMG's announcement concerning the need for prospective applicants to have graduated from appropriately accredited schools, it meant that CAAM-HP could continue the process of accrediting the Caribbean offshore medical schools as well as regional medical schools. Students of those schools that do not receive accreditation from a regional accrediting body recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) will not be able to complete neither

USMLE The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is a three-step examination program for medical licensure in the United States sponsored by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). ...

examinations nor MCCQE, and therefore will not be able to become United States or Canadian doctors, if their school is not certified by the year 2023. CAAM-HP is one of the primary accrediting bodies for Caribbean medical schools.

List of schools assessed by CAAM-HP

Source:

Medical schools

Dental schools

Veterinary schools

Schools in CARICOM member countries not appearing above have either not been assessed by CAAM-HP or are pending accreditation.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.caam-hp.org/ Medical education in the Caribbean Medical regulation