CA approval process/laws for Foreign schools

[lmesina]

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Hello everyone,

I've looked everywhere and can't seem to find an answer to this. Is CA approval for Intn'l schools retroactive to students who have attended/graduated from that school in the past? I've gotten different answers asking a few institutions.

UMHS is a brand new school in the Caribbean once stated that a future CA approval would NOT be retroactive to students that ENROLLED into 1st sem during a time when the school did not yet have approval (very specific)..

Other more established schools seem to have their CA approval apply to past graduates it seems, such as schools that already have an established medical program, but just created an "English" tract to accommodate Americans.. these programs are considered separate from the school, and thus requires a separate approval.. but it seems that these approvals are retroactive (i.e. applies to those who enrolled BEFORE the approval, but graduated during a time when the school has approval)..

I can not seem to find this info from the CMB site:

list of approved schools
http://www.mbc.ca.gov/applicant/schools_recognized.html

CA Med board Laws/Regulations
http://www.mbc.ca.gov/laws/Index.html

If anyone can provide any type of insight into this matter, would greatly be appreciated =)

 

[bidiboom]

Its made very clear by CMB : As long as its not specified otherwise, regularly to be approved and get licence, a student needs to take ALL of his/her education (every single hour!) in an approved program. I know this very clearly, because they replied my question about it that way, and also from others too I heard that many times. For instance you got in a unapproved school, had a year, later passed to another approved program, or the school gained approval. You will need to retake that first year in an approved program once again. All every single hour must be taken in an approved program, otherwise you cant get licence in California, neither in the other states which follow the same approval list.

The only exception, as far as I know, is that its explicitly stated that, that specific approval includes former graduates as well. Then ok, the graduates of unapproved years can get licence as well.

Hello everyone,

I've looked everywhere and can't seem to find an answer to this. Is CA approval for Intn'l schools retroactive to students who have attended/graduated from that school in the past? I've gotten different answers asking a few institutions.

UMHS is a brand new school in the Caribbean once stated that a future CA approval would NOT be retroactive to students that ENROLLED into 1st sem during a time when the school did not yet have approval (very specific)..

Other more established schools seem to have their CA approval apply to past graduates it seems, such as schools that already have an established medical program, but just created an "English" tract to accommodate Americans.. these programs are considered separate from the school, and thus requires a separate approval.. but it seems that these approvals are retroactive (i.e. applies to those who enrolled BEFORE the approval, but graduated during a time when the school has approval)..

I can not seem to find this info from the CMB site:

list of approved schools
http://www.mbc.ca.gov/applicant/schools_recognized.html

CA Med board Laws/Regulations
http://www.mbc.ca.gov/laws/Index.html

If anyone can provide any type of insight into this matter, would greatly be appreciated =)

 

[lmesina]

Its made very clear by CMB : As long as its not specified otherwise, regularly to be approved and get licence, a student needs to take ALL of his/her education (every single hour!) in an approved program. I know this very clearly, because they replied my question about it that way, and also from others too I heard that many times. For instance you got in a unapproved school, had a year, later passed to another approved program, or the school gained approval. You will need to retake that first year in an approved program once again. All every single hour must be taken in an approved program, otherwise you cant get licence in California, neither in the other states which follow the same approval list.

The only exception, as far as I know, is that its explicitly stated that, that specific approval includes former graduates as well. Then ok, the graduates of unapproved years can get licence as well.

Thanks for your response. I understand what you're saying for the most part, however; when you stated that switching schools from an unapproved to approved school means repeating the full year, you also stated "or the school gained approval". What if my case were the latter, in that the school I'm in gained approval?

You said that the year had to be repeated "in an approved program", but what if the school I'm in received approval upon my starting my 2nd year medical school? Would I have to repeat my 1st year (in the same institution)? What is "Specific approval"?? Please clarify? Also, can you tell me where it's made clear by CMB? And thank you so much for your insight.

P.S. Quick addn'l quesiton: What states defer to CA's approval system?

 

[lmesina]

Cmon guys! no one? well.. here is the latest from the UK/Ireland threads:

I found an informative link about what it takes for a medical school to get recognized by the Medical Board of California.

http://www.mbc.ca.gov/applicant/schools_self-assessment_ims.pdf

From the link:

"If an institution meets the requirements set forth in Title 16 California Code of Regulations section 1314.1 (a)(1), then that institution is exempt from this process. Those requirements of Title 16 California Code Regulation section 1314.1 (a)(1) are as follows:

- The institution is owned and operated by the government of the country in which it is located.

- The country is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

- The institution's primary purpose is to educate its own citizens to practice medicine in that country."

All of this is GREAT news for the University of Limerick! It meets all 3 criteria which means that graduates should, and will be eligible for licensure in the state of California!

The reason that UL probably isn't approved currently is because they just graduated their first class, of 32 students, in June 2011. I'm seriously doubting any of those 32 applied for a medical license in California considering the majority of the students were Irish (and probably Canadian, from the sound of things).

However; I'm wondering if anyone has ever heard of a time requirement for consideration of approval.. like I heard before, someone stated "school has to be in existence for 10 years".. this type of req. would be outside the realm of the above stated req.'s...

and of course, my original unanswered question on the "retroactive" and "specific" approval..

Thanks.

 

[bidiboom]

Imesina I'm sorry for that much a delay, I couldnt see your post earlier 😳

...What if my case were the latter, in that the school I'm in gained approval?...

To my knowledge, it doesnt matter, as long as you take the part of your education you took in an unapproved program, once again in an approved program, its ok for CMB. Say for instance you took 1 year of your med education in school X while they were still unapproved, and at the beginning of your 2nd year they got approval, and you finished your education there, you need to take that first year once again in any one of the approved school/program, your own school or another one (in the same school the program in native language may be approved, and in English may not be, so its important to see this as well clearly in the approved schools list of CMB.)

What is "Specific approval"??

I mean regularly all of the approvals have the definition as we talked until now: You need to take all of your education in an approved program. But sometimes the approval may include the previous graduates as well, then the graduates prior to the beginning date of approval are recognized by CMB as well. But its not the regular way of approval, thats a special condition for that specific program's approval, not valid for all of the approvals of all schools/programs.

Also, can you tell me where it's made clear by CMB?

I directly wrote to them and got this reply:

"... Any international medical school where the native language of the country and/or the official language of educational instruction is a language other than English and that medical school has an English language medical school program then medical school must apply to the Board for recognition of the English language program, even if the medical school may qualify for recognition by the Board pursuant to California Code of Regulations Section 1314.1 (a)( 1) and is already recognized by the Board.
Currently, the only English language medical school program in Turkey that is recognized by the Board is: Istanbul University, Cerrahpasa School of Medicine.
One of the minimum requirements for an applicant to be eligible to apply for a California Postgraduate Training Authorization Letter (PTAL) or a California Physician's and Surgeon's License is that the applicants must have received all of their medical school education from and graduated from a medical school that is recognized by the Board.
If you have questions regarding whether the medical school you are considering obtaining your medical school education from is recognized by the Board, please check the Board's Web site list of recognized medical schools at the following link:
http://www.mbc.ca.gov/applicantlschools recognized.html

Note: All medical school education received at a medical school that is recognized by the Board must be completed pursuant to California Business and Professions Code Sections 2089-2091.2 to ensure that applicants for a PTAL or licensure do not need to remediate any of their medical school education. A medical school that is recognized by the Board that accepts the medical education from a student transferring from a medical school that is not recognized by the Board, will not meet the minimum requirement of receiving all medical school education from a medical school recognized by the Board.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Cheryl Thompson, Licensing Associate Analyst -International Medical Schools at (916) 263-2382 or bye-mail at [I didnt place the e-mail address here, to avoid spam, but I can send it to you as PM]..."

P.S. Quick addn'l quesiton: What states defer to CA's approval system?

As far as I know they are: Texas, Idaho, Vermont, Indiana and some others as well, but I dont know them.

 

[bidiboom]

Imesina the post you refer to in your this post was the reason of my research about this approval question, but it came out to mean something else and irrelevant for the English programs in the countries which have native languages other than English.

By the way, this "having education topdown in approved programs" point is expressed by some other people as well. We in general hang out in ValuMD and if you ask this point there, you may get a wealth of answers. I am a Turk who is living in Turkey, but there is an American that is well-versed about these topics way better than me.

Cmon guys! no one? well.. here is the latest from the UK/Ireland threads:




However; I'm wondering if anyone has ever heard of a time requirement for consideration of approval.. like I heard before, someone stated "school has to be in existence for 10 years".. this type of req. would be outside the realm of the above stated req.'s...

and of course, my original unanswered question on the "retroactive" and "specific" approval..

Thanks.

 

[lmesina]

bidiboom, Thank you so much, this has helped immeasurably. Thank you for sharing the response the CMB gave to you here on SDN.

I will try to contact the officials at CMB for any more specific questions.. thanks.

 

[bidiboom]

Welcome 🙂