ArticleMedical education2023
Altruism or nationalism? Exploring global discourses of medical school regulation.
Article in Medical education, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond intentions: a critical narrative review of accreditation's planned and emergent impact on medical schools.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2026Review
- The global and domestic in policy: Impacts on medical education and migration.Clinical medicine (London, England) · 2026Review
- Perceptions of academic leaders in low- and middle-income countries about the role of WFME in enhancing the quality of medical education.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Global research agenda for medical education regulation: findings from a nominal group consensus exercise.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- One World, One Health: Tackling the Global Health Crisis.Medical science educator · 2024Article
- Altruism or nationalism? Exploring global discourses of medical school regulation.Medical education · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough medical school regulation is ubiquitous, the extent to which it should be based on global principles is unclear. In 2010, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) announced that from 2023, overseas doctors would only be eligible for certification to practise in the United States if they had graduated from a medical school that was accredited by a 'recognised' agency. This policy empowered the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) to create a recognition programme for regulatory agencies around the world, despite a lack of empirical evidence to support medical school regulation.
methodsThis study employs critical discourse analysis, drawing on the theoretical perspectives of Michel Foucault and Edward Said, to identify discourses that enabled this 'globalising' policy decision to take place. The dataset includes a series of 250 documents gathered around three key events: the Edinburgh declaration by WFME in 1988, the first set of global standards for medical schools by WFME in 2003 and the ECFMG ruling about medical school accreditation in 2010.
findingsTwo discourses, endorsement and modernisation, were dominant throughout this entire period and framed the move to globalise medical school regulation in terms of altruism and improving medical education worldwide. A discourse of resistance was present in the earlier period of this study but faded away as WFME aligned itself with ECFMG after 2010. Two further discourses, protection and control, emerged in the later period of this study and framed the ECFMG ruling in terms of nationalism and protecting American interests. DISCUSSION: This study proposes a new conceptualisation of the relationship between ECFMG and WFME in light of the apparently contradictory policy motivations of altruism and nationalism. It goes on to consider the implications of this association for the legitimacy of WFME as an organisation that represents all of the world's medical schools.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.