For decades, doctors here have found that their solid medical training has prepared them to pass tests for foreign physicians in the West.
To the Editor: I have spent the last decade as a supervising attending physician at a community teaching hospital that trains mostly foreign physicians.
The counterargument for making it easier for foreign physicians to practice in the United States — aside from concerns about quality controls — is that doing so will draw more physicians from poor countries.
But many foreign physicians and their advocates argue that the process is unnecessarily restrictive and time-consuming, particularly since America's need for doctors will expand sharply in a few short months under President Obama's health care law.
Additionally, we would recommend that US EM professional organizations continue to offer, and increase when possible, scholarships and grants for foreign physicians to rotate in US hospitals.
This, however, was prohibitively difficult due to the high cost and bureaucratic barriers of entrance to the USA as well as reluctance on the part of some US hospitals to host foreign physicians.
The foreign physicians aren't going to stay in Haiti for the long term.
The doctors' lobbies have erected numerous barriers to keep qualified foreign physicians from practicing in the United States.
Not everyone creates the largest Medical Faculty in the World, graduating 1500 foreign physicians per year (including many African Americans & Latinos from here), with 25,000 medical graduates from 84nationss.
If our trade policy were not dominated by protectionists, it would be directed toward making it easier for qualified foreign physicians to practice in the United States, potentially saving patients tens of billions every year.
In fact the potential gains from bringing in foreign physicians are so large that we could tax a portion of the earnings of foreign doctors to repay their home countries, and allow them to educate two to three doctors for every one that comes to the United States.
