Moral panic in medical education: analysing responses to a global regulatory policy

Abstract Background The World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) is a global non-statutory, not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation that announced a recognition programme for regulatory agencies in 2010, responding to an accreditation policy by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) in the US. While WFME's role has expanded globally, no studies have examined stakeholder perceptions of this recognition programme in Global South contexts. Objective To examine social media discourse about WFME to understand how it is perceived by medical education stakeholders, with particular focus on responses to the recognition programme. Methods A systematic search of Twitter posts referencing WFME over a 360-day period (August 2021-August 2022) was conducted using Twitter API. Posts were analysed thematically using Cohen's Moral Panic framework and contextualised with newspaper articles and webinar content. Moral Foundations Theory was applied to understand underlying psychological drivers of responses. Results 294 tweets were analysed, with 94% (276) relating to Pakistan’s medical regulatory agencies seeking WFME recognition. Analysis revealed that responses aligned with Cohen's five stages of moral panic: identification (20%), amplification (30%), anxiety (27%), gatekeeping (13%), and submergence (10%). The Pakistan Medical Commission was positioned as a “folk devil,” with discourse reflecting multiple moral foundations including care/harm, fairness/cheating, and authority/subversion. Conclusions This case study demonstrates how global recognition policies can generate moral panic in the Global South, particularly in the context of unstable governance. The findings highlight unintended consequences of the WFME recognition programme in Pakistan and suggest the need for more nuanced understanding of how policies originating in the Global North impact medical education communities worldwide.