Immigrant doctors trained to help bridge major gaps in care

No one would argue that the United States has a significant shortage of primary care physicians, or that California ’s shortage is extreme. A “shortage” is defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as fewer than one primary care physician for every 3,000 to 3,500 people, and according to the agency’s statistics, California has 607 federally designated shortage areas, impacting a populati on of some 6.7 million people.A program at UCLA aims to make a difference in those numbers by helping legal immigrants with physician training — that is, those who have already graduated from a medical school outside of the United States, Puerto Rico or Canada — pass their U.S. licensing exams and obtain U.S. residency training in family medicine. To date, 114 participants have finished the program and gone into family medicine residen cy programs.The initiative, called the UCLA International Medical Graduate Program, is unique in that it ’s the only program sponsored by an academic medical center that helps both the immigrant physicians and the underserved community. The program provides the educational review in exchange for a promise that participants — once they’ve become residency-trained and licensed — will provide car e in underserved communities for two to three years after completing their family medicine residency. Often, after their obligation to serve in underserved communities is complete, doctors choose to stay in those communities.“Of al...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news