U.B. Set to Launch Associated Program in Premedical Science

The University of Belize’s Health Science Faculty is launching an Associates Program in Premedical Science in August. The program has been established to prepare students for the rigors of a medical program outside of Belize. Doctor Lisa Johnson, the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Belize, spoke with us about the advancement of medical studies at the university, when we caught up with her this morning at a conference in Belize City.

Lisa Johnson

Dr. Lisa Johnson, Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences

“I can say that coming soon we do expect to get the medical program going, but medicine is not something that one can do in anyway other than the proper way. It is not a cart before the horse situation, at least not if I am involved and the survival of any medical program now hinges on that program starting with everything in place to be accredited by CAAM-HP. Next year the ECFMG, with is the organization out of the U.S that certifies graduates, international medical graduates to enter residency in the U.S. will no longer accept graduates of medical schools that are not accredited by their regional accreditation agency. That means they won’t be able to take the U.S MLEs which is the set of exams that allows every medical graduate to apply for residency positions in the U.S. it will not only be the graduates of schools that are not accredited gets cut out of the U.S market. We are talking about worldwide. This is coming from the World Federation of Medical Education. The WFME has set some standards and the accreditation bodies in the different parts of the world have signed on to those standards.”