hi my name is Jeff while and I'm the

Regional Medical Director for Kaplan

here in asia-pacific today I'll be
talking about opportunities for medical
students and medical graduates in the
United States but first I'd like to talk
to you a little bit about Kaplan the
company that I work for Kaplan is one of
the largest education providers in the
United States we have a history that
spans back to 1938 and we have
constantly improved expanded and moved
forward with our educational products
today Kaplan prepares for over 90 exams
last year alone we served over 1 million
students in 30 different countries I
myself work for our medical division and
in our medical division one of the
things that we focus on is preparing
students for the USMLE the United States
medical licensing examination series
right now the u.s. is experiencing a
doctor shortage by the Year 2015 we will
be here we will have a shortage of over
65,000 physicians and this number is
expected to double to 130,000 positions
by 2025 why do we have this issue well
there are a number of factors one is
that the baby boomer generation is aging
very quickly and today in the United
States 10,000 people turn 65 a day a
third of our population is 65 or older
as you get older you tend to retire then
we have a lot of doctors that are
retiring we also have a lot of people
that are getting older and sicker and
going to the doctor more frequently the
challenge is that the number of medical
students that has graduated from our
schools has maintained relatively static
for the last 10 or 15 years consequently
we cannot produce enough doctors fast
enough this opens up a lot of
opportunities for
medical students and graduates
throughout the world the education
system in the u.s. is slightly different
than here in Malaysia in Malaysia you
graduate from school you then complete
an internship and then you are a general
practitioner in the United States we do
not have GPS all doctors are specialists
you are eligible to participate in
specialist training known as a residency
as soon as you graduate from Medical
School
these programs are paid training
programs and generally lasts between
three and five years consequently the
United States offers a faster pathway to
specialization than here in Malaysia and
other parts of the world this is a great
opportunity for doctors in Malaysia
opportunities mean that you graduate
from school as soon as you graduate you
are eligible to participate in this
specialist training there are also a
number of other factors that make it
extreme that give Malaysians a positive
or advantage when applying for programs
and probably chief among them is your
command of English I travel throughout
Asia I will tell you that I speak with
many students who have very good board
scores but do not have the communication
skills necessary to interface with a
program director or with potential
patients in the United States this is
not a challenge that Malaysian medical
students will have and consequently we
are very positive about the
opportunities that exist for you all now
I want to talk a little bit about the
process of applying and attaining
specialist training in the United States
again the specialist training is called
the residency in order to be eligible to
apply to a residency program you need
what is called EC fmg certification EC
fmg stands for the educational
commission for foreign medical graduates
and in order to receive this
certification you need to graduate from
a medical school listed in IMed
International Medical Education
directory
and take and pass the exams step 1 step
2 CK and the CS although you cannot
apply the specialist training until you
have graduated from medical school
you do not need to wait to graduate to
take these exams in fact you are
eligible to take these exams after
you've completed your preclinical
education at Kaplan
we encourage medical students to study
and take these exams while they're in
school the material is pressure in your
mind and you tend to do better