Dissecting The Medical Board Of California's Licensing Requirements For IMGs

A major concern of international medical graduates (IMGs) is that their foreign medical school's medical curriculum may not meet the medical licensing requirements observed by certain State Boards in the United States.

While my husband and I are not sure if we will eventually be practicing and settling in California, we thought we'd go by the Medical Board of California's requirements since it has been concisely laid out for us on their website (and from what we've heard, it has one of the most strictest licensing standards).

We thought it would be helpful to compare the State Board's current requirements with a preferred Philippine Medical School's current medical curriculum...


I.  Philippine Medical School Curriculum 
A future upperclassman at one of our preferred Philippine Medical Schools just posted the medical school curriculum for the coming school year (I noticed some changes from the prior year's curriculum that was previously posted on the school's website) on her blog. To whomever you are, thanks for posting!!!

A.  First Year (1,244 hours)

• Human Anatomy
• Physiology
• Biochemistry
• Community Medicine (formerly documented as "Family and Community Medicine" last year)
• Psychiatry I
• Bioethics I
• Perspectives in Medicine
• Medical Informatics I

B.  Second Year (1,276 hours)

• Pathology (Anatomical / Clinical)
• Microbiology / Parasitology
• Pharmacology 
• Physical Diagnosis
• Community Medicine II (formerly documented as "Family and Community Medicine 2" last year)
• Medicine I
• Obstetrics and Gynecology I
• Pediatrics I
• Surgery I
• Psychiatry II
• Bioethics 2
• Medical Informatics II

C.  Third Year (1,284 hours)

• Medicine 2
• Surgery 2
• Pediatrics 2
• Obstetrics and Gynecology 2
• Community Medicine III (formerly documented as "Family and Community Medicine 3" last year)
• Clinico-Pathologic Conference
• Clinical Pharmacology
• Otorhinolaryngology I
• Opthalmology
• Orthopedic Surgery (formerly documented as "Orthopedics" last year)
• Radiology I
• Legal Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence
• Psychiatry 3
• Bioethics 3

D.  Fourth Year (12 months)

• Medicine - 2.5 months (last year, this included 1 week in Radiology and 1 week in Rehab Med)
• Obstetrics and Gynecology - 2 months
• Pediatrics - 2 months
• Surgery - 2 months (last year, this included 1 week in Anaesthesiology, not sure about this year)
• Community Medicine - 1.5 months (formerly documented as "Family and Community Medicine" last year)
• Otorhinolaryngology - 0.5 months
• Opthalmology - 0.5 months
• Orthopedic Surgery - 0.5 months (formerly known as "Orthopedics" last year)
• Psychiatry - 0.5 months
• Bioethics 4 - 12 hours

II.  Medical Board of California Requirements
Important note: Please be sure to check their website for the most up-to-date and accurate information (as these are just my own interpretations).

A.  Minimum Undergraduate Clinical Training Requirement
(This applies if you are seeking to obtain a medical license in California)

It appears that the Medical Board of California has a minimum undergraduate clinical training requirement of 72 weeks (from what I had read from another source, 1 clinical week in California = 32 hours and does not include lecture / theory), with 40 of those weeks going to the core clinical courses.

My action item #1:  Contact the Medical Board of California to clarify if the other 32 weeks (out of the 72 required weeks) are meant for clinical electives.

B.  Minimum Clinical Training Requirements for "Core" Clinical Courses
(This applies if you are seeking to obtain a medical license in California)

• Surgery (8 weeks)
• Medicine (8 weeks)
• Pediatrics (6 weeks)
• OB/GYN (6 weeks)
• Family Medicine (4 weeks)
• Psychiatry (4 weeks)

While the above weeks only total 36 weeks, I would think that the other 4 weeks (out of the required 40 weeks) must be spent on any of the above core clinical courses.

My action item #2: Contact the Medical Board of California to clarify if the other 4 weeks can be distributed among any of the above core clinical courses to satisfy the 40-week minimum requirement.

(Note: This is a screen shot of a section of the Medical Board of California licensing application form
taken on March 23, 2013)

Table 1. A comparison between the Medical Board of California's 

clinical training requirements and one of our preferred 

Philippine Medical School's fourth year medical curriculum

NOTE: Again, this is just my own limited interpretation of the data gleaned 

from my personal research efforts.

Now, it's time to compare the above requirements with the curriculum of one of our preferred Philippine Medical Schools (See Table 1).

If I had understood correctly, the Philippine Medical School admissions clerk (that I had spoken with last October 2012) mentioned that ward duty will begin as early as the 2nd year of medical school. Since the exact numbers of clinical training time for the 2nd and 3rd years are not explicitly stated on the course description that I saw, for now, I can only speak to the amount of training months that have been posted for fourth year medical students.

My action item #3:  Follow-up and clarify with the Philippine Medical School re: the exact amount of all other clinical training time prior to the fourth year. Manage their expectations by informing them early that we will be requesting them to fill out sections of our California medical license application in the future (during/after residency).

(Note: This is a screen shot of a section of L5, Certificate of Clinical Training, of the Medical Board of California licensing application form--to be completed by the Philippine Medical School-- taken on March 23, 2013)

C.  Remediation
I've allocated a section for this just in case the amount of clinical training time offered by our preferred Philippine medical school does not meet the minimum requirements of the Medical Board of California. I'll need to know if remediation must occur before or after graduation--and if the choice belongs to the med student, I'll need to weigh the pros and cons of which option is best.

My action item #4: Contact the Medical Board of California to get clarification re: the statement below as per my last phone conversation with them last November 2012, the deficiency can actually be remediated after graduation by spending additional residency time on top of the State Board's minimum residency requirements for obtaining a medical license to practice within the State.

(Note: This is a screen shot of a section of the Medical Board of California
licensing application form taken on March 23, 2013)

D.  U.S. Clinical Experience - Clinical Clerkship Training Outside of Philippine Medical School
(This applies if you are seeking to obtain a medical license in California)

I could be wrong, but it appears that it is important that the facility where my husband and I will be planning on getting U.S. Clinical Experience (USCE) meet the following criteria:

• Be formally affiliated or has a formal contract of affiliation with a U.S., Canadian, or International Medical School
• Have an ACGME-accredited residency training program

Note: This is a screen shot of a section of L6, Certificate of Individual Clerkship Training, of the Medical Board of California licensing application form--to be completed by the U.S. Clinical Clerkship Facility--
taken on March 23, 2013)

E.  Medical Education Requirements
(This applies if you are seeking to obtain a medical license in California)

I'll need to scrutinize this section further in a future blogpost to see which of the following subjects in the screenshot below are not found in the medical curriculum of our preferred Philippine Medical School.

My action item #5:  Contact the Medical Board of California re: these subject requirements and how they can be met, in the event that they are not part of the Philippine Medical School curriculum.

(Note: This is a screen shot of a section of L2, Certificate of Medical Education, of the Medical Board of California licensing application form--to be completed by the Philippine Medical School--taken on March 23, 2013)

My action item #6:  Contact our preferred Philippine Medical Schools to see if they can comply with the Medical Board of California's requirement re: producing and sending a "certified copy" of the medical school diploma when the time comes.

(Note: This is a screen shot of a section of the Medical Board of California licensing application form
taken on March 23, 2013)

F.  Postgraduate Training Requirements
(This applies if you are seeking to obtain a medical license in California)

I found this section to be interesting as it specifically applies to IMGs--

Note: This is a screen shot of a section of the Medical Board of California licensing application form
taken on March 23, 2013)

In addition, there is a 4-month General Medicine minimum postgraduate training requirement for IMGs:

(Note: This is a screen shot of a section of L3B, Certificate of Completion of ACGME/RCPSC Postgraduate Training, of the Medical Board of California licensing application form--to be completed by the Program Director
-- taken on March 23, 2013)

Lastly, it is important to note that the residency program must be ACGME-accredited.



DISCLAIMER: I am by no means affiliated with any of the organizations listed in this blogpost. For the most accurate and recent information on any of these organizations, please visit their website or contact them directly.