Guest foreign doctor Posted January 10, 2003 Report Share Posted January 10, 2003 Hi, I am a qualified doctor in Thailand and have a clinical experience in the US. But I am moving to Canada permantly. I would like to know what I should do to get in the med school in Canada. Do I need to take MCAT and start the process from begining? Where can I find out about med school's requirements?? Or can I skip some clinical courses if I can pass MCC EE and QE??? Million thanks for your help.... foreign doctor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted January 10, 2003 Report Share Posted January 10, 2003 Hi Foreign Doctor, As I am sure you are aware, there are many obstacles that international medical graduates (even Canadian citizens that have gone to a medical school in the US) must overcome before being licensed to practice in Canada. It can be a very long and frustrating process because the number of applicants is much greater than the number of spaces. You do not necessarily have to re-do medical school in Canada if you have graduated from a recognised school (seeing as you have experience in the US, I assume that this won't be a problem for you). Instead, you will need to pass a series of exams and then complete an IMG program and likely a residency in Canada. You didn't mention what part of Canada you were intending to move to, and each province has their own procedures and regulations to qualify IMG's to practice. The following link refers specifically to Ontario (and is for this current year...the deadlines for this year have passed, however, I don't imagine that they change too much from year to year so it would likely be safe to assume that the same cycle will repeat beginning in Oct 2003.) www.library.utoronto.ca/m...003_04.pdf The provincial government has just opened up 50 more spots in the IMG program and has also created a 'fast-track' program although I don't know the details of it. You could try contacting the IMG program...their contact info is on the last page of the PDF file that is linked above. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest foreign doctor Posted January 11, 2003 Report Share Posted January 11, 2003 Thanks a lot for your advice...It is very helpful. Btw, I have serveral more questions to ask. 1. How can I get more information of IMG program in each provinces?? 2. how is IMG program different from residency program? 3. I am planning to move to B.C. in this March or April. Do you know the requirement of IMG program in this province?? 4. Is the system for foreign doctors to get a med license and practice in Canada as same as that in the US?? Thank you very much. Regards, foreign doctor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted January 11, 2003 Report Share Posted January 11, 2003 Hi Foreign doctor, I did a quick search to see what I could find on BC's procedures for IMG's...they don't seem to have as much available on-line as the Ontario program. The following is a description of their program as was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in March 2000: collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100...6/0801.htm And the website and contact information from the IMG program at the University of British Columbia: www.familypractice.ubc.ca...y/IMG1.htm And now to answer your questions: (as best as possible) There is no centralised site that has all of the information for all of the provinces....however, you can search for it yourself if you enter "international medical graduate" and the name of the province you are interested in into an internet search engine. An IMG program is pretty much a 'pre-residency' evaluation period in which you work with more supervision. During this time you are expected to refresh your clinical skills, become used to working within the Canadian health care system and you are also evaluated to identify any potential deficiencies in your training that would require remediation in order to attain a Canadian license. After the IMG program, you then move onto a residency program...it seems that BC restricts their IMG's to family medicine but each province is different. Not having lived in the US at any point, I am not sure what the requirements are to gain a license in the US....I do know that both Ontario and BC (and probably the other provinces as well) require that you write the MCCEE and MCCQE exams and will not accept the American equivalents as 'equivalent'....I would not think that the procedures will be the same in both countries...they may be similar but the chances of being identical are slim to none. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted January 12, 2003 Report Share Posted January 12, 2003 Unfortunately, as Aneliz has already noted, there is no centralized website to tell you what an IMG must complete before having the chance to practise medicine in Canada. Depending on whether Canada recognises your training, if not, you may have to repeat both medical school and residency before being able to practise medicine here. Here are some links that may be of use: College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC www.cpsbc.bc.ca/ (If you type in "College of Physicians and Surgeons" into www.google.com you should be able to find the College for each province in Canada Canadian Residency Matching Service www.carms.ca (There is an entire section devoted to IMG's within the CaRMS website. This is the website that you need to go through in order to get a Canadian residency, for Canadian medical students and IMG's alike. Definitely a place to visit) Medical Council of Canada www.mcc.ca (This is the agency that is responsible for administering the MCCQE and MCCEE, which are medical licensing exams.) Association of Canadian Medical Colleges www.acmc.ca (This website has, among other things, within its "Publications" section, booklets on admission requirements and statistics for admissions into Canadian medical schools. Not free, but if you are trying to figure out which schools accept international applicants and how many, that information MIGHT [i don't know as I don't own them] be available within these booklets.) Canadian Medical Association www.cma.ca (This link may very well not be helpful for IMG's, but it is the association that represents Canadian doctors from all areas in Canada. If something happens in the Canadian healthcare system, chances are reasonable that you can hear about it on this website) Canadian Federation of Medical Students www.cfms.org (Similarly, the CFMS is the organization that represents Canadian medical students from all across Canada. This website is very infrequently updated, so chances are good that you won't see much on it, but I include it to be thorough.) Links to Canadian medical school websites premed101.com/medschools.html (If all the above links don't seem to help, you can consider contacting the medical schools directly to see what advice and guidance they may be able to offer. The above page contains links to all the medical schools in Canada.) I hope this has been of help and that you find the information you are seeking. Best of luck! Ian UBC, Med 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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