The WFME programme on definition of international standards in medical education was launched in 1997. The purpose was to provide a mechanism for quality improvement in medical education, in a global context, to be applied by institutions, organisations and national authorities responsible for medical education.

The original Trilogy of WFME Global Standards was developed by three international task forces with broad representation of experts in medical education from all six WHO - WFME Regions, and published in 2003.

Since 2004, the Standards programme has been promoted by the WHO/WFME Partnership to Improve Medical Education.

WFME Global Standards have been used in self-evaluation, peer review and other reform processes in several hundreds of medical schools, and used as a template for national and regional standards and for recognition and accreditation procedures in more than 60 countries.

European Specifications of the WFME Global Standards were developed by a joint WFME – Association of Medical Schools in Europe (AMSE) task force, under the MEDINE Thematic Network, and published in 2007.

In 2010, a joint task force of WFME, AMSE and ORPHEUS (the Organisation for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System) began work to develop the ORPHEUS position paper “Towards Standards for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences” into agreed standards for the PhD degree in biomedicine.