Medical Education Cooperation With Cuba

Gateways travel program:while the gateways team faced challenges in maintaining stability throughout 2024, the addition of gisele coutin marie in july has gradually improved this situation and the program's overall efficiency. This program continues to be promising and to engage universities and organizations in sponsoring delegations to cuba with a view to fostering collaborative projects.important upcoming steps include better follow-up procedures with organizers and medicc representatives from past trips, heightening the program's visibility through marketing and social media, and increasing human resources support for the team in cuba.to date in 2024, medicc gateways has successfully completed five trips, with one full delegation and one individual trip scheduled through year's end. Unfortunately, two trips were canceled due to low enrollment, and a third because the organizer fell ill. Looking ahead, we have seven more trips planned thus far in 2025.

Md pipeline to community service: in 2024, medicc received a small grant totaling $20,000 from the louis and anne abrons foundation to support program and administrative costs. Medicc's md pipeline to community service program, a unique set of components designed to diversify the population of primary care physicians in the us is an important strategy in addressing health inequities and institutional racism in our country. A special group of us students and graduates, most of whom are african american or latino and from underserved communities, are awarded full scholarships by cuba's latin american school of medicine (elam), but then face significant financial and systemic hurdles in achieving their objective of practicing in under-resourced areas in the us. Nonetheless, over 250 elam graduates are now in residency or practice and are an important part of the answer to ongoing primary care workforce deficits.mnisi scholarship - the thabo mnisi scholarship defrays the significant financial burden of preparing for and taking the licensing exams required for becoming a physician in the us. The scholarship helps with test preparation materials, mentorship opportunities, exam fees, and other resources. The financial burden of these hurdles only continues to grow, with typical prep and exam fees now at approximately $5,000-$7,000 per student over several years, and more funding to support elam students' exam costs is needed.this year, medicc allotted $10,000 to the scholarship and provided 23 us elam students and graduates (for reference, there are 35 current students), with funding. This year, due to limited funding, we focused on funding only the next step in a student's journey. In total, we distributed equivalent to $9,274 worth of funds. Additional funds not yet spent are saved in case of student emergencies or extenuating circumstances. Additionally, we awarded 58 nbmes (nbmes are test preparation) which equates to $3,480 total. Medicc receives an in kind donation each year of about 75 nbmes directly from the nbme itself to provide to students. Because the nbmes are donated in-kind, their value is in addition to the $10,000 medicc allotted to the mnisi scholarship this year.community connections summer rotations - provides us elam students and graduates with clinical rotations in community health settings nationwide, a prerequisite for admission to post- graduate training and ultimately to clinical practice in the us. In 2023, medicc was able to arrange 5 rotations nationwide and secure partnerships with new sites. Currently, medicc does not arrange sites for students and instead accepts proposals from students and then vets sites. This year, medicc allotted $3,500 to community connections, and will only be able to provide funding to two students. So far, medicc has funded one student at $2,000. One other student applied, but will be completing her rotation virtually so is not eligible for funding.pathways to residency - our pathways to residency component supports us elam graduates through the residency application and matching process, and prepares the more advanced students as well. In previous years, medicc has worked with recent graduates to support conference attendance (aafp, fmec, and any other conferences identified by grads as important for them) and supported steady progress through all the requirements, some new in 2023, for foreign medical graduates to qualify for the match.this year, medicc allotted $500 to pathways to residency and will mainly provide assistance with conference registration fees for students. Students do not fill out an application for this funding, rather they submit funding requests directly to medicc which medicc fulfills on a first come, first served basis. So far this year, medicc has not had any applications for this funding.