Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine was founded in 2009. It is a public medical school in Miami, designed from the start around a social mission: to address physician shortages in South Florida's underserved communities. Its StepUp Curriculum is notable. It is a competency-based framework developed with community health advocates.
It builds social determinants of health, health inequality, and community partnership into every stage of training. Miami's extraordinarily diverse population makes it an unmatched place to learn cross-cultural medicine.
What makes FIU Wertheim College of Medicine (MD) different
FIU Wertheim's StepUp Curriculum is one of the most innovative and well-documented community-health-integrated medical curricula in the United States. Miami's demographics — the most ethnically diverse major city in the US, with large Cuban, Haitian, Colombian, Venezuelan, and Caribbean communities — provides extraordinary exposure to cross-cultural medicine and tropical disease.
The school's explicit focus on social determinants of health is built into the curriculum rather than added as an elective.
FIU Wertheim College of Medicine (MD) course & teaching
Integrated curriculum. 4-year MD. The StepUp Curriculum is an innovative competency-based framework that integrates social and community health content alongside clinical and biomedical science from Year 1. Students are assessed on competencies rather than only traditional academic metrics. Clinical rotations at Broward Health hospitals, Jackson Health System, and community health centers across Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
FIU Wertheim College of Medicine (MD) research strengths
FIU Wertheim College of Medicine (MD) is strong in these research areas:
- Health disparities in Miami-Dade
- HIV/AIDS
- Tropical medicine
- Diabetes in Hispanic populations
- Community health research
How the FIU Wertheim College of Medicine (MD) interview runs
Format: Traditional interview (faculty and/or student interviewers)
FIU Wertheim uses a traditional interview format, typically consisting of two one-on-one sessions of approximately 30–45 minutes each with faculty and/or current students. Interviews are non-blind and probe motivation for medicine, commitment to primary care and underserved communities in the Miami metropolitan area, and understanding of the StepUp Curriculum.
Interviewers specifically probe whether candidates have genuine community health commitment rather than merely academic medicine ambitions, reflecting FIU's explicit social mission. The interview day includes a campus tour at the FIU University Park campus and an information session.
FIU Wertheim College of Medicine (MD) intake
Approximately 120 students per year.
FIU Wertheim College of Medicine (MD) at a glance
Founded in 2009. Based in Miami, FL.
Programmes offered:
- Community Medicine
- Health Equity
- Primary Care
- Global Health
- Social Determinants of Health