Major fraud by foreigners in the residency exam of the Ministry of Health

Amid the implementation of deep reforms to restore the culture of effort in Argentina, the Government of Javier Milei faces a new example of how the previous system had given way to opportunism and cheating. The National Medical Residency Exam—a key step for accessing top-tier professional training in the public system—became embroiled in a scandal involving academic fraud practices carried out with cutting-edge technology by applicants, most of whom are foreigners.

The presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, confirmed last Thursday that "there has been an investigation that revealed suspicious results in the exam for medical residency applicants, inconsistent with the academic records of their universities and with their career grade point averages". This statement, which caused a strong reaction among newly graduated professionals, is part of a situation that had been developing for a month, when the national Government announced a "new sovereign framework" for the selection of residents, aimed at prioritizing those who have completed their entire education in the country.

The official announcement directly affects those who scored 86 points or more on the July 1 evaluation—mostly graduates from foreign universities—and authorizes the Ministry of Health to "suspend the current merit ranking, reschedule the timeline, and call for a new exam," according to Adorni. The reason? The appearance of "suspicious grades, such as scores above 90 and 85 obtained by students who graduated from foreign universities, whose students were not usually among the top 500 positions" in the ranking.

The main development is the use of technological devices as tools for cheating. A video went viral showing how a foreign applicant—identified as Alejandro David Castillo Adrián, of Ecuadorian nationality—took the exam using Ray-Ban Meta glasses with a built-in camera, recording the content of the test. The material was sent from the bathroom, where those involved had access to their cell phones, to third parties who solved the questions from outside. Then, the candidates returned to the classroom with the answers.

This modus operandi, sophisticated yet effective, included multiple bathroom breaks by those involved, which contrasted with the behavior of the rest of the applicants. The scheme resulted in unusual statistical jumps: universities that had never managed to place students among the top 500 in the ranking suddenly had several among the top 30. "The statistical curve is directly broken," sources from the Ministry pointed out.

This type of practice had already been suspected in previous years, but in this edition of the exam, the cheating strategies reached an unprecedented technological level. The use of glasses with a camera and the exploitation of moments without strict supervision—such as bathroom breaks—expose a new dimension of the problem.

In this context, it is crucial to highlight that many of the foreign degrees involved lack international endorsement. According to the National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation (CONEAU), the Council for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (CACES) of Ecuador—equivalent to CONEAU in that country—"is not recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME), nor has it been validated by the Ibero-American System for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (SIACES), nor by the MERCOSUR Regional Accreditation Mechanism (ARCU-SUR)." This calls into question the comparability and reliability of those degrees compared to Argentine ones, which do have international validation.

Meanwhile, it was reported that in many Ecuadorian universities, grade point averages do not include failed courses, creating a distortion regarding the student's actual performance. In contrast, in the Argentine system, failed courses are counted, which allows for a transparent assessment of academic performance.

The most emblematic case was that of Castillo Adrián, who scored 92 out of 100 on the residency exam, despite having graduated with a career grade point average of just 61. "He screwed over all of us who worked our tails off studying and the country that opens its doors for him to continue his training without charging him a cent," denounced another doctor who took the exam and leaked the video.

It should be noted that the security and oversight operation for the exam, held at the Parque Roca site, was under the responsibility of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, as is customary since it falls within its jurisdiction. Despite the control efforts, the use of hidden devices and the creativity of the offenders managed to circumvent supervision, a situation that is already under investigation.