This paper describes the range of topics covered in the delivery of Special Study Modules (SSMs) to students from the inception of the new MBBS curriculum and explores the value of SSMs in enhancing curriculum diversity. The SWOT analysis revealed a wide range of benefits to participating students and opportunities for curriculum diversification through external stakeholders were identified.

Allocating scarce resources to competing sectors has always been a major challenge for policy-makers, planners and administrators. As the cost of healthcare continues to escalate and the burden of diseases make faster demands on the budget, there has been greater recourse to public debate on the issue. A major underpinning of this debate focusses on the ethical issues inherent in the decision-making process as they affect life, living and death – all in the context of “quality of life”.

Creative thinking and entrepreneurship were the driving forces which opened new opportunities for medical training to be available and accessible to persons previously denied because of “artificial” barriers. The concept of offshore medical schools was born out of these circumstances and an attempt to challenge the status quo of the privileged few.