17,000 Brazilians with foreign medical diplomas unable to practice in Brazil

About 17,000 Brazilian doctors who earned their medical degrees from foreign medical schools are facing difficulties practicing in Brazil because their diplomas are not recognized in Brazil, according to estimates from the Brazilian Society for Medical Law and Bioethics (ANADEM). The information was released Tuesday (Jul. 12) at a public hearing of the Chamber of Deputies' Committee on Education.

“We have between 15,000 and 20,000 [medical graduates] who are unemployed or working as nurses and assistants. They are medical graduates, but they're not [licensed] doctors,” said Raul Canal, chairman of ANADEM. He criticized the level of difficulty of the National Exam for Revalidation of Foreign Medical Diplomas (“Revalida”), one of the leading foreign diploma recognition programs in Brazil, along with other schemes in place at federal higher education institutions.

Despite the persistent difficulties, Canal says there has been progress. “The exam used to be designed to assess medical specialists rather than medical school graduates more generally. [In the past,] a gynecologist with 20 years' experience would fail cardiology questions at Revalida. But this has changed,” he said.

Administered by the Anísio Teixeira National Institute for Educational Studies and Research (INEP), the Revalida has seen low pass rates since its introduction. In 2011, only 12.13% of the candidates obtained pass marks. In 2012, that figure narrowed further to 9.85%, and in 2013, to 6.83%. In 2014, the pass rates surged to 32.62%.

The year 2015 saw the highest pass rate for the exam, 42.15%. According to Henry Campos, a doctor in the Revalida subcommittee, the exam itself has not changed—it is the candidates' qualifications that have improved. Dr. Jeancarlo Cavalcante, from the Federal Board of Medicine, (CFM) commends the exam standards. “It is competently, adequately designed, with no influence from any [medical] associations,” he said.

Maria Inês Fini, chair of INEP, says the institute works “very diligently” on the exam. She invited rectors of foreign universities at the hearing to get to know the Revalida program and the theoretical, conceptual, and curricular framework the exam is based on.

Translated by Mayra Borges