Western Atlantic Univeristy School of Medicine Granted ECFMG and Canada Sponsor Notes

Western Atlantic University School of Medicine (WAUSM) is pleased to announce that the University has received two sponsor notes: one for the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and one for Canada.

Following closely on the heels of the University receiving provisional accreditation from the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP), the ECFMG note means that WAUSM students can sit for the United States Medical Licensing Examinations (USMLE), while the Canada note provides Canadian students the ability to participate in the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS).

Published on the World Directory of Medical Schools, an international medical school receives an ECFMG sponsor note when the ECFMG determines that the school meets its requirements.

Dr. Paula Wales, Provost and Chief Operating Officer, thanked the WAUSM community for their help in achieving yet another milestone for the University.

“Our accreditation standards are the highest in medical education and comparable to the standards used in medical schools in the United States,” she said. “These notes, as well as our CAAM-HP accreditation, serve to recognize the caliber of WAUSM.”

She continued, “Our students are poised to provide excellent healthcare to patients in the US, Canada, our campus home country of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, and around the world.  We are honored to have the opportunity to deliver a first-class medical education to ensure our students become outstanding, patient-centered physicians.”

As a result of recent ECFMG changes, both international medical graduates (US citizens who study abroad) and foreign medical graduates (non-US citizens) must now attend a medical school accredited by an agency recognized by the World Federation of Medical Education (WFME) or the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA) to be eligible for ECFMG certification; this means their medical degree must be from a school meeting a certain standard of excellence as determined by those groups.

“WAUSM has experienced tremendous growth,” Dr. Wales said. “We have CAAM-HP provisional accreditation, ECFMG and Canada sponsor notes, excellent faculty and staff, amazing students, strong clinical partners, and tremendous community support. It’s exciting to be part of WAUSM during this formative time and I can’t wait to see how much more WAUSM grows.”