What the Trends Show
“International medical school graduates have been and continue to be a major source of physicians in the U.S.,” says Edward Salsberg, director, Center for Workforce Studies at the Association of American Medical Colleges.
According to a survey this year in Health Affairs of IMG trends since 1981, most IMGs working in the United States come from India, the Philippines, Mexico, Pakistan, China, and the Republic of Korea. When starting full-time employment, most IMGs tend to gravitate to the East Coast, the Midwest (particularly Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan), and California.
Although the overall percentage of IMGs in the United States has remained about the same, more U.S. citizens graduate from medical schools outside this country, according to Salsberg. Noncitizen IMGs are gravitating toward the H1-B visa for foreign-born professionals for a duration of not more than six years instead of J-1, or exchange visitor visas.
A slightly higher percent of IMGs go into primary care. “International medical graduates have tended to go into the specialties that U.S. graduates were less interested in entering,” Salsberg notes. “They fill gaps because many are willing to go into some specialties in order to get into the U.S.”
Location, Location, Location
Entering residency, obtaining fellowships, and embarking on the practice of medicine all pose challenges for the foreign-born IMG. Throughout their residencies and into practice, IMGs can face biased perceptions from peers, attending physicians, and patients—especially if English has not been their primary language.
Rachel George, MD, regional medical director for Cogent Healthcare, is an international medical graduate, who received her medical degree from JJM Medical College in Kamataka, India. She observes that the challenges for IMGs and hospital medicine groups often depend on the predominant cultural mix of the surrounding community, as well as the hospital community culture.
For example, one program Dr. George oversees is situated within a culturally diverse community near Los Angeles. “Almost any international medical grad can go there, do very well, and be very comfortable, just because the rest of the community is very comfortable with international grads,” she says. However, the first employment for many IMGs here on J-1 visa waivers may be in medically underserved areas, which tend to be rural areas.
“When you go to those places, I think communication becomes much more of a challenge because people in the local area may not be used to interacting with people of different cultures with different accents,” Dr. George says. In some of those cases, Cogent has sent physicians to English classes to help improve communication skills.
Perception versus Reality
Dr. George notes that international medical graduates often face the perception that they are not as good as American graduates.
Much of this perception may be related to an IMG’s lack of English fluency, she says. But those familiar with the certification process for IMGs know they face multiple difficulties to attain the status of a practicing physician in this country.
“It might actually be harder for an international medical grad to be able to practice in this country,” notes Dr. George. “Your scores almost have to be twice as good as the scores of the American grad standing next to you to get into residency. Fellowships are also extremely difficult to obtain. Foreign medical grads have to jump through a lot more hoops to get into the system. And because of that, we actually probably have the cream of the crop here.”
For Salsberg, credentials count. “A graduate of an LCME [Liaison Committee for Medical Education]-accredited medical school provides a high degree of assurance to a residency program director that the physician has received a comprehensive, solid medical education,” Salsberg says. “This is not to suggest that foreign IMGs are not well prepared: Many of the IMGs that we’re getting now are really among the best and the brightest in the world.”