EP 916 What Would America Do Without Foreign Born Doctors? We May Find Out

  For more than sixty years, the United States has trained fewer physicians than it needs.  It is expensive and time-consuming to educate a new doctor, and much more expedient to bring immigrant doctors trained in other countries. And that’s what we’ve done.  This all began, in earnest, with the passage of the Hart-Celler Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which expedited the entry of foreign medical graduates (FMG’s) from postcolonial South Asia and sent them to provide care in shortage areas throughout the United States.  I, myself, have benefited, and do today, from their care.  In fact, one out of 4 doctors practicing in the United States came from other parts of the world.  It was never an easy road for them, but they have filled a vital need for America.  Yet, today, with a less than welcoming attitude, it’s hard to know what the future holds and its impact on all of us.  To discuss this important subject is Eram Alam, Ph.D, and Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University.  She is the author of “The Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare.”

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