The Caribbean’s archipelago and 2,000 miles of turquoise sea are pinpointed by small-scale communities and increasingly, multilingually-taught medical courses. Gone are the familiar cinema, shopping mall and ‘movie theatre’ staples of life on the continent, in their place a deeper sense of history and culture. The middle of the ‘00s saw a leap in the amount of for-profit Caribbean medical schools on the horizon for students, and state medical board officials came down hard in their paternal role, trying to ensure that graduates’ skills were transferable to the US. It seems that graduating students from medical schools in the Caribbean are finding their skills application in other jurisdictions.

Looking at the United States’ medical sector (the target workplace for many students graduating in the Caribbean), we find a sizable amount of off-shore graduate-doctors. The broader ramifications for this – after eschewing the validity problem – is a more diverse bank of qualified professionals with specialisations across a wider board. There exists a broad variation in medical schools across the region, and studies are keeping closer tracks on this with time through a growth in the amount and divergence of accreditation bodies and review processes.

Thriving system
Generalisations about individual schools – let alone the region as a whole – seem misplaced, with such wide variability in not only the structure of medical education, but the education’s transferability into practice. The quality-assuring Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions was established in 2003, in an attempt to “determine and prescribe standards and to accredit programmes” and accredit medical schools to its standards. It’s certainly a positive move towards a body existing to oversee medical education in the Caribbean Community region.

The Caribbean’s study of medicine has thrived recently, from something barely existing just 50 years ago to now, an attractive option for international students. Medical schools in the area were previously looked at as single entities, though the standards being introduced are slowly changing this – schools are now being examined comparatively, giving students more transparency when looking at their options and career-investments for the future.

The proliferation of medical education in the Caribbean has partially arisen as a riposte to the barriers to entry in the US. And although this marked positive comes a drawback – many graduates find it difficult to return to the States and obtain a ‘decent’ residency slot – it also brings more choice for students. Barriers to entry for off-shore graduates in the most competitive specialties (plastic surgery, dermatology) do of course exist, but no more than for US graduates.

As we look further into the future, medicine is assessed by the patient more than the doctor, there is no definitive evidence of doctors who graduated in the Caribbean being more or less successful or efficient than US graduates. Medical education in the Caribbean is, while geographically different, among the highest standards across the globe.