Medicina Interna en Paraguay

There are 23 Medical Schools acknowledged in Paraguay. They do not all have graduates yet and not all are accredited by the National Agency on Higher Education. The pregraduate curricula of all universities include internal medicine as a one year subject, usually in the last year, held in a hospital setting. The degree of physician grants the right to practice medicine in Paraguay. Access to medical residencies in Paraguay is through two ways: 1) A single medical residency admissions exam; 2) Credits obtained through the curriculum and research activities The only way to obtain a specialization in internal medicine in Paraguay is through a medical residency combining clinical training and postgraduate university education. Residency programs in internal medicine are 3 years in length. Accreditation of the training centers is up to the Paraguayan Society of Internal Medicine. Only full, active participation is allowed. Observorship is not, because training centers are ruled by the country's labor laws, which do not include non remunerated clinical work. Recertification is done every 5 years, either through an examination or accumulation of credits (points). It is worrisome to see the number of young medical graduates choosing internal medicine as a final specialty, which has continuously decreased over the past years. There are a growing number of internal medicine residency graduates who choose to pursue further training in other subspecialties.