The Georgia Composite Medical Board has given full approval to the University of Medicine and Health Sciences (UMHS), a top Caribbean medical school offering a Doctor of Medicine degree program. UMHS is the only foreign medical school to be approved by the State of Georgia under the new standards of the Georgia Composite Medical Board.
In order to qualify for this approval by the Georgia Composite Medical Board, the University had to provide a significant amount of documentation, including both a database of outcome information as well as a self-study. The review was very rigorous and demanding. In 2014, the University received a conditional approval after receiving a positive response from a site visit to the University. A subsequent follow-up site visit occurred in January 2015, resulting in a full approval of the University of Medicine and Health Sciences. This approval allows the University to continue to offer a clinical program in the State of Georgia. In addition, graduates would continue to be eligible for both residencies and licensure in the State of Georgia.
Currently, the University has affiliated hospitals in over 8 states for core rotations, plus affiliations with hospitals in Canada and Puerto Rico. In Georgia, UMHS has affiliations with three major teaching hospitals located in Atlanta and Augusta. The UMHS website (www.umhs-sk.org) has a full list of U.S. and Canadian core rotations and hospital affiliations.
For 2015, more than 50 UMHS graduates matched at hospitals across the United States and Canada, ranging from residencies at Duke University in North Carolina to Kaiser Permanente in Hawaii, in such areas as Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Surgery.
“I would like to thank the staff and faculty who participated in this review, and especially our students, whose continued excellence earns the respect of the most demanding review boards,” says UMHS President Warren Ross. “We look forward to continuing to expand the number of states/provinces in which our students and graduates can practice medicine, and live out their dreams with their families.”
UMHS offers a traditional four-semester Basic Science Program in St. Kitts, which can be completed in 16 months. The 5th semester is completed at the UMHS Portland, Maine campus. In Portland, students are prepared for Step 1 of the USMLE licensing exam through an affiliation with Kaplan Medical. UMHS students have been performing exceptionally well on Step 1, with an average score of 220.
UMHS has three entry dates per year: May, September and January. To qualify, students must have completed all pre-requisites, including the MCAT. For more information, visit www.umhs-sk.org.
(Top photo) STATE OF GEORGIA: UMHS is the only foreign medical school given approval by Georgia Composite Medical Board to allow students unlimited clinical rotations & residency selection. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
About UMHS:
Built in the tradition of the best US universities, the University of Medicine and Health Sciencesfocuses on individual student attention, maintaining small class sizes and recruiting high-quality faculty. We call this unique approach, “personalized medical education,” and it’s what has led to our unprecedented 96% student retention rate, and outstanding residency placements across the US and Canada. UMHS is challenging everything you thought you knew about Caribbean medical schools.
Scott is Director of Digital Content & Alumni Communications Liaison at UMHS and editor of the UMHS Endeavour blog. When he's not writing about UMHS students, faculty, events, public health, alumni and UMHS research, he writes and edits Broadway theater reviews for a website he publishes in New York City, StageZine.com.
