I am pleased to share with you news on an exciting peer-reviewed, open-access, international education journal that launched this past December. Entitled “Innovations in Global Medical and Health Education (IGMHE), it is published jointly by the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and Bloomsbury Publishers with the support of the Qatar Foundation. I had the honor of serving as an author and guest editor of the inaugural issue. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with the journal’s visionary Chief Editors, Dr. Javaid I Sheikh, Professor and Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and Dr. Victor Dzau who is President and CEO of Duke University Health System and Chancellor of Health Affairs and Professor of Medicine at Duke. These individuals are leaders in the globalization movement.
This first edition of the IGMHE is derived from the proceedings of a symposium entitled the “Globalization of Medical Education” held at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) annual meeting in San Francisco in 2012. I had the pleasure of co-hosting this symposium with the AAMC’s Global Health Learning Opportunities (GHLO™) Program Director Dr. Jenny Samaan who had the vision to put together a “Going Global” session series that emphasize the growing importance of medical education on a global scale. These sessions set the stage for medical educators, as well as healthcare opinion leaders and policy makers to engage in an open dialogue on the direction and implications of the globalization of healthcare and medical education. With the encouragement of Dr. Samaan, the AAMC supported an expansion of the Going Global track at the AAMC’s annual meeting held in Philadelphia in November, 2013, which we hope will become an increasingly important feature of all future AAMC annual meetings. (To find out more about the GHLO programs – click on this link.)
The timely and stimulating discussions, and presentations at the “Globalization of Medical Education” symposium became the basis for articles in the inaugural issue of IGMHE. The symposium speakers are the contributing authors of the IGMHE’s first issue and these prominent leaders in international medical education and from the US House of Medicine are now fully engaged internationally. We were very fortunate to have the leadership from some of the key institutes that are pioneers in global medical education as well as the leaders of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) and USMLE, The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), The Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME), The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) all in the same room at the same time to discuss this important topic. We are pleased that many of these individuals are sharing their insight and perspectives on what globalization means for undergraduate and graduate medical education in a series of articles:
- The globalization of medical education | Robert K. Crone, Jenny S. Samaan
- Three global adaptations of the American medical education model | Javaid I. Sheikh, Kamal F. Badr, Robert K. Kamei, Thurayya Arayssi
- Globalization of medical education: Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) concerns and initiatives | Emmanuel G. Cassimatis
- International assessment of medical students: Should it matter anymore where the school is located? | Donald E. Melnick
- Engaging with others to improve global medical care through international board certification | Krista Allbee, Lois Margaret Nora
- Graduate medical education across national boundaries | Thomas J. Nasca
As a member of the IGMHE editorial board, I am excited to see this new journal facilitate and encourage an ongoing dialogue regarding the nature, pace, and implications of breaking down traditional barriers concerning the delivery of undergraduate and graduate medical education and its impact on healthcare. I want to thank and congratulate all my colleagues and featured authors who contributed to this effort.
Through the pages of the IGMHE, we will strive to:
- Stimulate a debate on global medical and health professional education
- Enable medical educators, physicians, students, policy makers and all healthcare professionals to remain abreast of issues related to global medical education and healthcare delivery
- Bring high quality, evidence-based content and innovative thinking to this important debate.
I invite you to visit the journal online here and invite your comments!
Robert K. Crone, MD
President & CEO
Strategy Implemented, Inc