Universidad de Ciencias Medicas (UCIMED) is a medical school located at San José

San José, Costa Rica

San José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. Located in the Central Valley, San José is the seat of national government, the focal point of political and economic activity, and the major transportation hub of this Central American nation.Founded in 1738 by order of Cabildo de León, San...

, Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

. The school is known for teaching medicine and is recognized in the field nationally. UCIMED was originally founded in 1976 by surgeon and investigator Dr. Andres Vesalio Guzman Calleja by the name of Escuela Autónoma de Ciencias Médicas. In 1999 the medical school decided to become independent and thus changed its name to UCIMED. Three years after its name change in March 2003 the National System of Accreditation for Superior Education (SINAES) accredited the university for its teaching in medicine.

In 1998 UCIMED introduced pharmacology

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

 as a major.

Academics and accreditation

Medicine, Pharmacy, Nutrition and Physiotherapy at UCIMED are about five-year programs. Those programs are semester based and classes are taught in Spanish. During the first five semesters students get a bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 (Bachillerato). During the fifth semester students start intensive training at local hospitals such as the San Juan de Dios and Hospital Mexico. After finishing the eleventh semester students obtain a (Licenciatura) degree.

In March 2003 the National System of Accreditation for Superior Education (SINAES) granted the accreditation of UCIMED medicine career program. This turned UCIMED into the second university with an accredited career in medicine, after the Universidad de Costa Rica. The Pharmacy program was granted this accreditation by SINAES.

Admissions

The university requires students from Costa Rica to do an aptitude test to enter the university. Students whose grades in the test are not up to the standard of the university are granted an interview with the dean of Medicine to assess their motivation. Costa Rican students must present their high school diploma and grades.

Agreement with Kaplan

Recently UCIMED successfully signed an agreement with Kaplan, Inc.

Kaplan, Inc.

Kaplan, Inc. is a for-profit corporation headquartered in New York City and was founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan. Kaplan provides higher education programs, professional training courses, test preparation materials and other services for various levels of education...

 to prepare medical students for the USMLE and the Costa Rican state exam.

External links

• http://www.ucimed.com
• http://www.sinaes.ac.cr/sitios_interes/claudiocordero.pdf#search=%22ucimed%22
• http://www.sinaes.ac.cr
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hennepin_County_Medical_Center
• http://www.hcmc.org/