Global minimum essential requirements in medical education.

The process of globalization is increasingly evident in medical education and makes the task of defining global essential competences required by 'global physicians' an urgent matter. This issue was addressed by the newly established Institute for International Medical Education (IIME). The IIME Core Committee developed the concept of 'global minimum essential requirements' ('GMER') and defined a set of global minimum learning outcomes that medical school students must demonstrate at graduation. The 'Essentials' are grouped under seven broad educational domains with a set of 60 learning objectives. Besides these 'global competences', medical schools should add national and local requirements. The focus on student competences as outcomes of medical education should have deep implications for curricular content as well as the educational processes of medical schools.