David Black¹
1 Federation of the Royal College of Physicians of the UK 

Abstract 

Starting in Iceland in 2015, then expanding to sites in India and UAE, the three UK Colleges of Physicians are now providing Internationally delivered three year UK equivalent Internal Medicine Training completely aligned with the GMC approved UK IMT curriculum. Previously called Core Medical Training it is a competency based curriculum based on Entrustable Professional Activities. This builds on the work of delivering the MRCP UK Diploma on an International basis for over 40 years. 

In some countries trainees take the MRCP as a stand-alone qualification but it seems increasingly anachronistic to provide a qualification rather than integrating it into high quality education and training. There are currently a total of 250 trainees in 8 programmes; 6 in India and one each in Iceland and Dubai. 

To implement and embed the program all the educational and clinical supervisors undergo up to 5 days of local education and training in the operation and delivery of the program. The first cohort of trainees at each site also receives hands on training including the e-portfolio. To ensure and demonstrate UK equivalence, a senior UK Physician educator provides externality for all the Annual Review of Competence Progression panels annually onsite and there is also a process of review and accreditation by UK educators of each program on a three-year cycle. 

Challenges have included the delivery of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Medicine, maintaining faculty training, delivering meaningful quality improvement programmes and the disruption of COVID. 

Evidence for the success of the program includes: trainee success in directly applying for and achieving higher speciality training posts in the UK in open national competition, MRCP PACES pass rates similar to UK trainees in the UK, successful site reaccreditations and increasing competition for places. 

A complex competency based postgraduate curriculum can be successfully delivered on an international basis. 

References (maximum three) 

Black D. Use of an accreditation process to embed UK-equivalent Core Medical Training in an International Context. J R Coll Physicians Edinb 2018 Dec; 48(4):341-345 

Black D, Baker T, Freeth D. Celebrating the success of International internal medicine training programmes. Royal College of Physicians Commentary August 2022 44-45 

https://www.jrcptb.org.uk/about-us/international-programme-accreditation