Boulet John, Bede Carole, McKinley Danette, Norcini John
FAIMER, Philadelphia 19104-2685, USA.
Med Teach. 2007 Feb;29(1):20-6. doi: 10.1080/01421590601131823.
In the past several years, there has been a rapid expansion in the number of medical schools. Presently, there are over 1,900 operating medical schools in the world, located on six of the seven continents. Regrettably, other than for select countries and regions, relatively little is known about the characteristics or the quality of these institutions.
The International Medical Education Directory (IMED) provides an accurate and up-to-date resource of information about medical schools. Based on current listings in IMED, the geographical distribution of medical schools does not mirror the regional population. The Caribbean, with a total population of less than 40 million, has 54 operating medical schools. In contrast, of the 57 African nations, 16 did not have a single medical school.
Given the physician's role in the healthcare team, the challenges presented by migration of healthcare workers, and questions concerning the adequacy of existing institutions to meet healthcare needs, developing and maintaining accurate and detailed information on the world's medical schools and their graduates is paramount.
在过去几年中，医学院校的数量迅速增加。目前，世界上有1900多所正在运营的医学院校，分布在除南极洲之外的六大洲。遗憾的是，除了少数国家和地区外，人们对这些院校的特点和质量了解相对较少。
《国际医学教育目录》（IMED）提供了有关医学院校的准确且最新的信息资源。根据IMED目前的列表，医学院校的地理分布与地区人口情况并不相符。加勒比地区总人口不到4000万，却有54所正在运营的医学院校。相比之下，在57个非洲国家中，有16个国家连一所医学院校都没有。
鉴于医生在医疗团队中的作用、医护人员迁移带来的挑战以及现有机构在满足医疗需求方面是否充足的问题，开发并维护关于世界医学院校及其毕业生的准确而详细的信息至关重要。
