The UCLA International Medical Graduate Program

Students on campus watching a teacher on the computer

The UCLA IMG Program is the first of its kind in the nation, a pre-residency training program designed for graduates of non-U.S. medical schools (IMGs) who live in the United States, and who seek licensure to practice medicine in this country.

The UCLA International Medical Graduate Program was created in response to some of the most pressing problems facing primary care in California:

  • A critical shortage of Family Medicine physicians
  • The uneven distribution of the state’s physicians—with most concentrated in more affluent metropolitan areas along the coast—that leaves many of California’s inner-urban and rural communities badly underserved
  • Too few physicians with the language ability and cultural background to meet the needs of these areas’ disproportionately Hispanic population, especially among the monolingual and those with limited English proficiency

The signature elements of the UCLA IMG Program approach include: