Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Ireland exported a considerablenumber of her medical graduates, mainly to Britain and the British Empire. After the SecondWorld War there was a shift. The 1950s and 1960s saw an increase in the emigration of doctors to North America. The American Medical Association, worried about the possible impact upon the profession, introduced in 1950 a list of foreign medical schools which, in their view, met American standards of medical education. The failure of Irish medical schools to make this approved list brought to the surface problems in Irish medical education. This episode illustrates a number of issues raised by medical migration; recognition of qualifications and equivalency across borders; the rise of the USA as a global medical hegemonic power; the involvement of national governments; and migration as a catalyst for change in the exporting country.
- American Medical Association
- General Medical Council
- National University of Ireland