Conclusions
We report the first study on the characteristics of VMS programs and participating students at US and Puerto Rico medical schools. We found that most medical schools have VMS programs, the most popular rotations among visiting students are in general and subspecialty internal medicine, and eligibility and evaluation standards are inconsistent. Many medical schools view VMS programs as useful for recruiting medical students into residency programs. However, first-year residency classes at some institutions comprise only a few previous visiting medical students. Therefore, further research is needed regarding development of more uniform eligibility and evaluation criteria for visiting medical students and factors that determine the effectiveness of VMS programs in residency program recruitment.