Internationalisation of postgraduate medical education: a scoping review

There is a growing need to address the global burden of disease through medical education and practices that have an international dimension. Research on the internationalisation of undergraduate medical education is growing, with many studies documenting current educational practice and also calling attention to areas of education that are misaligned with global needs. However, the internationalisation of postgraduate medical education is seemingly missing from key discussions. This scoping review aims to map the existing literature on the motivations, formats, outcomes and barriers of internationalisation of postgraduate medical education. We conducted a scoping review with a systematic search of seven databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Ebscohost, Embase, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Ovid) for literature published between 2000–2023, using key terms including ‘internationalisation’, ‘global health’ and ‘postgraduate medical education’. Among 5,658 screened records, 71 studies met the inclusion criteria. Analysis revealed that the literature is dominated by perspectives from the Global North; key themes include a strong focus on trainee-centric motivations (e.g. skill acquisition, improving healthcare accessibility etc.), delivery through a variety of mobility electives and a stark asymmetry in outcome (and program framework) reporting that favours trainee benefits over host institution impacts. Barriers included financial constraints, logistical challenges, and structural inequities between sending and host institutions. More research is needed to align curricula across international programmes and standardise a way for programmes to implement mutually beneficial partnerships, extending internationalisation of medical education beyond the undergraduate level.