FIRST Step, the medical education subsidiary of local health-care company, Novamed, has announced that it is offering a specially curated programme for local medical doctors to assist them in upskilling in pursuit of international opportunities to advance their careers.

First Step made the announcement about the programme on the heels of recent public outcry regarding the employment contracts between some junior medical doctors and the Government. The public discourse has once again shone the spotlight on the issue of brain drain and the limited opportunities for young professionals.

Medical doctor and co-founder of Novamed, Dr David Walcott, has added his voice to the ongoing dialogue, noting that the bigger issue at play is demand and supply in the labour market.

“What is happening now is not so much a medical doctor problem, it is a labour market problem that is the result of an imbalance between the supply of skilled health care labour and the demand that the Government is able to pay for,” Dr Walcott said.

He shared that since being operational over the past two years, First Step has helped over 300 medical students across the world navigate their medical career path, helping them get into multiple residency and competitive postgraduate programmes at various institutions including Mayo Clinic, NY Presbyterian, Mount Sinai & Harvard.

According to Dr Walcott, the programme is designed to help medical professionals prepare for the accreditation examinations for the USA, called the USMLE Board Steps 1 & 2 examinations, as well as the UK, called the PLAB examinations. First Step also guides students through navigating their professional goals, assisting them with their admission applications for postgraduate programmes such as Masters in Public Health, MBAs and Masters in Hospital Administration. Medical doctors and students can also participate and take advantage of First Step’s parent company — Novamed, Virtual Innovation Lab — giving them exposure to global health-care innovation and health technologies such as artificial intelligence & 3D printing.

“At First Step our aim is to complement the knowledge gained from individual learning and institutional training by acting as a critical learning resource to provide medical professionals and medical students with the tools, systems and key learnings designed to maximise chances of academic and professional success. We want to offer our specialised programmes to our local medical doctors to increase their career options and opportunities for growth outside of Jamaica and the Caribbean,” Dr Walcott said.

Medical professionals and students interested in the First Step programme can reach out via e-mail at admin@firststepusmle.com.

First Step’s programme has a 99 per cent pass rate and has been offering these services to students for the past three years.

As the medical education arm of Novamed, First Step also recently launched its CareerMD division which offers students opportunities for career guidance, research, participation in innovation in an attempt to upskill the health-care workforce of the Caribbean & Latin America.

“We build platforms that drive engagement between emerging and advanced markets. Our goal is to ensure that our human capital in healthcare maximises their opportunities for engagement with our First-World counterparts,” Dr Walcott said.

The First Step team includes a combined expertise of local & international employees based in the USA and Jamaica, including several alumni of The University of the West Indies, Oxford, Harvard, Johns Hopkins & St George’s University.