Medical Schools

FAIMER® and WFME Announce the Launch of the World Directory of Medical Schools

PHILADELPHIA, UNITED STATES; 

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) and the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) are pleased to announce an important milestone in their collaboration to develop the World Directory of Medical Schools. The World Directory is now available at www.wdoms.org. This new resource, developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the University of Copenhagen, is the result of a March 2012 agreement to merge the organizations’ respective directories—FAIMER’s International Medical Education Directory (IMED) and WFME’s Avicenna Directory—to produce a single comprehensive resource on undergraduate medical education worldwide.

The world’s medical schools number more than 2,000. Collecting and maintaining data on these schools is a large and complex endeavor. The merger of IMED and the Avicenna Directory has combined FAIMER and WFME’s existing data sets and streamlined their data collection efforts. The new World Directory offers enhanced information such as enrollment and curriculum data for schools that offer multiple medical programs or tracks. In the future, additional features, such as information about program recognition or accreditation, will be added to meet the needs of medical regulatory authorities, certifying bodies, and researchers. The availability of current, high-quality information on undergraduate medical education in the form of a centralized resource will advance research on the quality of medical education and efforts to improve medical education, with the ultimate goal of improving public health.

During the transition to the new World Directory of Medical Schools, IMED and the Avicenna Directory will remain open for a year, to ensure that medical regulatory authorities and other users of these directories have continuity of the essential service that they provide. The World Directory, however, will take over as the definitive list of medical schools in the world, and IMED and Avicenna will be discontinued in 2015.

About FAIMER

FAIMER is a leader in improving world health. By creating educational opportunities, conducting research, and providing data resources, it serves international communities of educators, researchers, regulators, and policy makers—each a potential change agent for better health care. Through worldwide activities, FAIMER combines its own expertise with that of local experts to create meaningful and sustained improvements in the systems that produce health care providers and deliver health care.

FAIMER is a non-profit foundation of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG®) with headquarters in Philadelphia in the United States.

For more information, visit the FAIMER website at www.faimer.org.

About WFME

WFME is the global organization concerned with education and training of medical doctors. WFME’s mission is to strive for better health care for all mankind; WFME’s primary objective is to enhance the quality of medical education worldwide, with promotion of the highest scientific and ethical standards in medical education. This objective is met through the development of standards in medical education, by the promotion of accreditation of medical schools, with the development of databases on medical education, through projects on the future of medicine and medical education, and through other publications and partnerships.

The central office of WFME is in Copenhagen, Denmark. WFME is a non-governmental organization in official relation with the World Health Organization. WFME is an umbrella organization for the world's six regional associations for medical education.

For more information, visit the WFME website at www.wfme.org.