The United States of America remains dependent on international medical graduates
(IMGs) to meet the demands of health care delivery. Twenty-four percent of the current
physician workforce consists of IMGs with 15–20% of these in general surgery.
1
,
2
,
3
To address an estimated shortage of 200,000 physicians by 2020,
4
a constant, stable supply of IMGs in addition to an increase in graduating American
medical students may be necessary.
1
,
2
The new federal health care law of 2010 will provide health care coverage for tens
of millions of additional persons, thus raising the stakes for hospitals and schools
already scrambling to train more physicians. The law offers incentives to encourage
more people to enter the medical professions and a 10% Medicare pay boost for primary
care physicians. One provision in the law attempts to address residency positions;
because about 900 residency slots go unfilled each year, the law will allow for pooling
of funding of unused slots and redistribution to other institutions, with the majority
of these slots going to primary care and general surgery residencies.
5
The slot redistribution, in effect, will create additional residencies, because previously
unfilled positions will now be used based on criteria set by the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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References
- International Medical Graduates (IMGs) in the surgical workforce and the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals: where are we coming from? where are we going? (Presidential address).Am J Surg. 2008; 196: 315-322
- Characterizing the general surgery workforce in rural America.Arch Surg. 2005; 140: 74-79
- A longitudinal analysis of the general surgery workforce in the United States, 1981-2005.Arch Surg. 2008; 43: 345-350
- Weighing the evidence for expanding physician supply.Ann Intern Med. 2004; 141: 705-714
- Health reform, primary care, and graduate medical education.N Engl J Med. 2010; 363: 999-1001
Physician Workforce Enhancement Act of 2009, in H.R. 914. 2009.
- New medical schools in the US.NEJM. 2010; 362: 1255-1258
International Migration Outlook. SOPEMI Paris 2007. Paris:OECD Publishing; 162. p. 194.
International migration of health personnel: a challenge for health systems in developing countries. Report by Secretariat A59/18; 4 May 2006; 59th World Health Assembly; Provisional Agenda item 11.12. Available from: URL: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA59/A59-18-en.pdf. Accessed February 7, 2009.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 24, 2011
Accepted:
December 24,
2010
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc.
