Habla Doctor?

25% of physicians practicing in America went to medical school outside the United States.

Does this matter to you?

Okay, story time! Back in my single days, I dated a young lady who was an aspiring physician. By aspiring I mean she started college going into pre-med, but dropped that and went with nursing in hopes she'd return to medicine. While we were dating, she discussed a medical school in the Caribbean where a friend was a student. This friend had trouble passing the standardized test for med school, so looked outside the country. As a patient, this was kinda concerning. After all, if he's not smart enough to get into an American med school, why should he be able to come back to the states, do his residency and be recognized as a board certified physician? Well, this was nearly 10 years ago...and my tune has changed.

I have had several foreign born docs who also attended med school outside the states. Off the top of my head, there are some who I didn't care for their bedside manner, but their practice of medicine was professional and competent. Turns out, my experiences align with the data.

The Journal of Health Matters recently looked at the data on cardiac mortality rates with docs who graduated from an American med school vs. those who graduated from a foreign school. Their findings? No discernable difference. Good to know...and I, for one, believe in the economical data. Therefore, I no longer have any sort of prejudice against a doc who graduated from a med school in another country. In fact, in the last several months, I've switched our family doc to a gent who's degree was handed out by Mexico. Still, I was kinda surprised when I found out that one in four American docs didn't go to American med schools.

Here's a question (no idea if this data has ever been tabulated. If not? Someone should...) Take a survey of a wide group of patients. How many patients have even checked on where their physician went to med school? Or where he/she did his/her training? Fellowships? Unless you see the diploma hanging on their wall and recognize the name of the institution, I'd bet a shiney new nickle most patients can't discern undergrad from med school from residency from fellowship.

I find this a little sad; that patients are so uninformed. But, what does a patient think when they find out their doc's med school sheepskin comes from a university across the pond? What if it's the really big pond called the Pacific? I would love to see these opinions taken, the data analyzed, etc. Mainly, just because I'm a big nerd like that. Also, though, I'm fully in favor of patients arming themselves with knowledge. The more active a patient is in his/her own care, the better of they are.

So, faithful reader, how much do you know about your doc? And, if and when you do find out where he/she got their degree...does it matter?