Foreign medical graduates and U.S. physician supply: old issues and new questions

Abstract

Recent increases in the number of foreign medical graduates (FMGs) in U.S. hospital-training positions raise new questions about the future role of FMGs in U.S. medicine. Despite an historical surplus of physicians, forces such as greater demand for resident house officers, stabilization in undergraduate medical education enrollment, increase in demand for medical services, growth in both the number of women in medicine and physician employment in group practices, and continuing imbalances in the distribution of physicians favor FMG migration to the United States. Health system reform must be sensitive to the historical, current, and future role FMGs play in medical care delivery, especially in regard to service in underserved areas, specialties, and employment settings.

Dual Autonomies, Divergent Approaches: How Stratification in Medical Education Shapes Approaches to Patient Care

“…As discussed above, community programs today disproportionately staff international and osteopathic graduates, yet few sociologists have explored whether their training is comparable to American graduates' in university hospitals. The very limited sociological work on IMGs is dated and largely sidesteps questions about their training (see Mick 1987aMick , 1987bMick , 1993.…”

Physician Shortage over the Next Years

“…As paradoxical as it might seem policy makers, legislators, medical educators, and academics have to recognize that the United States is permanently involved in international exchange and is a sought after destination for immigrants of all occupations [11].…”