“There is no data to support that medical students from off- shore schools who complete any training in Texas will establish their practices here.”
According to data from a 2008 New
York Times article and the 2011 legisla- tive program of the Medical Society of the State of New York, one New York medical school was unable to secure a core rotation site within its county be- cause for-profit offshore medical schools bought up previously existing clinical training slots from local hospitals. That data, presented in a resolution by the Medical Student Section of the American Medical Association in 2011, also said the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation has a 10-year ex- clusive contract with St. Georges’ Medi- cal School. The offshore for-profit school pays $400 to $425 per student per week for training slots. New York, unlike Texas, has an over- abundance of clerkship and residency slots.
dinating Board (THECB) for a certificate of authority to grant medical degrees in Texas. If approved, AUC could contract with Texas hospitals and other health care facilities to provide clinical training for third- and fourth-year students from the school, located on the Caribbean is- land of St. Maarten. While DeVry officials say the move could bring more physicians to Texas, medical educators here fear it would displace Texas medical students from existing clinical clerkships. In a March 9 letter to THECB, TMA Council on Medi- cal Education Chair Cynthia Jumper, MD, warned that the proposal “would nega- tively affect the quality and affordability of education for Texas medical students, residents, and other health professionals — all who need and deserve first priority to clinical training in our state.” Despite a recommendation from
THECB’s Strategic Planning and Policy Committee to approve the application, the board voted April 25 to seek an opin- ion from Attorney General Greg Abbott about its legal authority to grant a cer- tificate of authority to a private profes- sional program. That move likely has delayed final ac- tion on the matter for at least six months, but the issue is far from over. DeVry offi- cials say they will continue working with the Coordinating Board on the matter.
50 TEXAS MEDICINE June 2012 At the meeting, THECB member Da-
vid Teuscher, MD, who also serves on the TMA Board of Trustees, said Texas needs to take care of Texas medical students’ clerkships first and foremost. He added that the issue deserves more study be- fore granting any training slots to enti- ties outside of Texas.
Meanwhile, four influential state law-
makers asked the Coordinating Board to postpone further action on the matter until after the Texas Legislature con- venes again in January 2013.
Starting a bidding war AUC is not the first Caribbean medical school to seek authority to provide clini- cal training for its students in the United States. Marcia Collins, director of TMA’s Medical Education Department, says Caribbean schools seek clinical training space in American teaching hospitals because they simply do not have the fa- cilities for training on their home islands. David Wright, MD, a member of
TMA’s Council on Medical Education and director of The University of Texas Medi- cal Branch’s family medicine clerkship program at Austin’s University Medical Center Brackenridge Hospital, says off- shore medical schools already have con- tracts for clinical clerkships with hospi- tals and other facilities in several other states, most notably New York.
The AMA House of Delegates will consider the resolution at its annual meeting in Chicago this month. The resolution asks AMA to encour- age local teaching hospitals to secure access to clinical clerkship positions for medical students educated in medical schools accredited by the U.S. Liaison Committee on Medical Education or Commission on Osteopathic College Ac- creditation before allocating positions to students from nonaccredited schools. It also asks AMA to oppose “extraordinary payments” by any medical school for ac- cess to clinical rotations. While AUC officials say they would not displace Texas students from exist- ing clinical training experiences, medical educators are still worried. In a March 20 letter to Texas High- er Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes, Texas medical school officials warned of a potential bidding war for clinical training slots. “Tuition in Texas medical schools is
50 percent of the national average for American medical schools,” the officials wrote in the letter. “We cannot compete with for-profit schools to pay for hospital experiences.”
The letter was signed by Don N. Pes-
ka, DO, dean of the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center; Paul Klotman, MD, president and chief
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