KAPLAN - NCIME

The National Center for International Medical Education (NCIME) is a vehicle for the standardization of medical education for internationally trained medical students and doctors. Each year thousands of recent international medical school graduates and foreign trained doctors apply for vacant residency positions in the US. The roads used for each of these applicants to residency readiness have varied tremendously.

When a Residency Director makes a decision on whom to admit to their program, they have to make every effort to ensure that a candidate is competent, prepared and well trained for a residency program. For the sake of patient care, they cannot afford to make a bad choice. Upon completion of our programs, graduates are presented with a certificate from The National Center for International Medical Education deeming them competent, qualified and well prepared for acceptance into a medical residency. Residency Directors know that graduates of this program have followed a structured and organized clinical rotation program, compared to individuals who do not have the certification. This is the competitive edge you need to successfully attain a residency position in the United States.

Unlike several countries that produce more graduating physicians than available post graduate residency positions, the US produces approximately 4,000 to 6,000 too few medical school graduates for open first year residency positions. Those positions are routinely filled by foreign medical graduates. With that said, 95% of US seniors will be guaranteed a residency position, but only about 40% of foreign medical graduates are accepted in US residency training each year. Of the foreign medical graduates, US citizens that attend medical school abroad have a higher acceptance rate into residency then medical students born outside the United States. Of the non US born medical school graduates individuals from India, and Europe have a decisive advantage for acceptance to residency over students from Latin America, Asia and the Middle east; this advantage is mostly due to the greater number of practicing physicians in the US from India and Europe, compared to other regions, that occupy senior residency education and hospital positions, i.e. residency program directors and hospital chief of staff, and therefore can influence placement of new residency into residency.

The 2012 report from the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP; www.nrmp.org), states that the US residency market suffers from the continuous annual inability to fill all residency positions with US Medical graduates. For the 2012 year, the number of first-year (PGY-1) residency positions offered through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) Main Residency Match was 24,034. The US graduates matched for 15,712 positions (65%) leaving in access of 8.000 (45%) vacant positions to be matched for Non- US graduates.

Nearly 15,000 internationally trained medical students and doctors, better known as International Medical Graduates (IMG) or Foreign Medical Graduates (FMG) competed for the 45% vacant residency positions. Training and board scores are key criteria used by residency directors in determining which IMG will eventually be accepted into their program. According to Richard Cooper, M.D., Director of Health Policy Institute at Medical College of Wisconsin, the 20 year estimates reveal that, unless change is increased by 35% in the next 15 years from the current level, the supply of physicians in the United States will not meet health care demands for a growing population.