BMJ  2004;328:47-48 (3 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7430.47-b

Letter

Academic medicine: time for reinvention

Encourage overseas based researchers to return to improve academic medicine in the developing world

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Although the obstacles to global health posed by inadequate health research capacity, particularly in developing countries, are well documented,^1-4 bureaucratic barriers preventing overseas based health academics in developed countries willing to return are hardly addressed.

Firstly, recognition of academic qualifications is an issue. Current practices of most medical councils in developing countries apparently indicate that recognition of academic qualifications operates primarily on the principle of reciprocity. Consequently, some "innocent" overseas medical academic graduates from reputable universities invariably get caught in the ideological crossfire relating to reciprocal (non-) recognition of certificates.

Advocates of a revival of academic medicine in the developing world may mediate to neutralise this obstacle by providing an international grading system that ranks medical research centres and medical and public health schools at universities by an aggregate of measures, analogous to the US stockmarket "Standard and Poor's 500" list. Such a measure would . . . [Full text of this article]

School of Public Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia niyiawofeso@hotmail.com

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