CARIBBEAN MEDICAL SCHOOL RESIDENCY PROGRAM

This is by far the most important aspect. Remember, the M.D. degree can be earned anywhere. It is a residency that will be your ultimate goal.

There were 16,893 U.S. medical graduates in 2011, and there were 26,158 total residency positions available in the United States NRMP residency match. This means that the difference of 9,265 spots were available to the "Independent Applicant pool."

This pool includes U.S. D.O. (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) graduates, Canadian medical school graduates, and all International Medical Graduates (IMGs) from all over the world, regardless if they are a U.S. citizen, Canadian citizen or a citizen of any other country.

In 2011 a total of 20,842 Independent Applicants were competing for those remaining 9,265 spots.

Caribbean medical schools place their students in clinical rotations in affiliated hospitals in the United States during the third and fourth year of medical school. Therefore, Caribbean medical students are at a far greater advantage when competing with other IMGs for U.S. residency (post-graduate training) positions.

Residency programs tend to feel more comfortable with students that have been trained in a U.S. hospital and are familiar with basic procedures and technology. This also gives Caribbean medical students the benefit of establishing contacts and friendships with the doctors and supervisors during the clinical years. Those people will not only write your letters of reference, but can aid you in obtaining a position in a U.S. residency program.

U.S. RESIDENCY PROGRAMS

Residencies for recognized specialties are diagrammed below.
The length of each bar represents the years of training required for certification.

COMPARISON OF RESIDENCY POSITIONS
AVAILABLE IN CANADA AND THE U.S.

FREIDA (www.ama-assn.org/go/freida) lists all ACGME-accredited residency programs. The U.S. column in this table is the NRMP (www.nrmp.org) list, which only has those programs that participate in their Match, which is a lower number. In the U.S. a certain number of residency positions are available outside of the NRMP match (non-NRMP residencies).

The Canadian column is complete (stats taken from www.carms.ca). Keep in mind that the U.S. Match is much better for Caribbean grads as it has around a 50% IMG match rate; whereas the Canadian match rate for IMGs averages around 10%.