Avicina Medical Academy (AMA) is a private Caribbean medical school with campus in Belmopan City, Cayo District Belize. A majority of the students who attend the school are from the United States and Canada. The tuition cost of AMA is less than the average private and public medical schools in the Caribbean.
The majority of Avicina Medical Academy students obtain their residency position through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP). Many obtain positions outside the Match; either having signed contracts with programs prior to the Match, or sometime after. Some graduates obtain residency through the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) or through a specialty match, such as the San Francisco Matching Program. Residency appointments obtained via the NRMP Match typically account for 80% of all residencies. Normally about 20% obtained their residencies outside the formal matching program.
Students begin their medical education with two years of basic sciences instruction, and then proceed to the two clinical years. The curriculum emphasizes active rather than passive learning, where small-group and self-directed study sessions give students the opportunity to apply and evaluate newly learned concepts. For the first two years, students learn in short lectures of no more than 10 hours per week, labs, group seminars; Patient Physician and Society, small-group and problem-based learning discussions, computer-assisted sessions, and related educational activities. For all four years, self-directed and collaborative learning modes are encouraged and expected.
In the first two years, students participate in a curriculum organized by the study of organ systems. In the first year, the basic science curriculum, called Structure-Function, incorporates the study of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and histology into the organ-based approach. The second year basic science curriculum, called Scientific Basis of Medicine, begins with an overview of immunology, microbiology, and infectious diseases. Once the overview is completed, focus is on the pathology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology specific to each organ system.
During the third year and fourth years, after Introduction to Clinical Clerkships, students rotate through a series of clerkships (such as emergency medicine, pediatrics, surgery, and psychiatry) where independent and collaborative learning modes continue to be encouraged and expected. Professional development is emphasized through continuation of the Patient, Physician and Society curriculum begun in the first year. Third- and fourth-year students are also expected to teach other medical students, thus helping to prepare them for their roles as physician educators with students, residents, and colleagues.