How to Address Challenges and Opportunities as an International Medical Graduate

Abstract

International medical graduates are physicians who received their medical education in schools outside the United States and Canada. International graduates are underrepresented in office-based practice, and their participation in teaching and research, two major components of academic medicine, is under recognized [I]. Some international graduates were born in the United States. This chapter gives emphasis to the international graduate who was born outside of the United States. This chapter represents the experiences and thoughts of the author and may not generalize to all international graduates. These graduates are a heterogeneous group in their educational, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, and some of them are more familiar with US-styled academic medicine and research than others. By and large, their background emphasizes clinical service and teaching; research and scholarship are not major priorities in foreign medical schools. In this chapter, my sense of the main characteristics of U.S. academic medicine will be presented and contrasted with what is practiced abroad. The obstacles encountered by international graduates, as they seek to integrate themselves into academic medicine will be discussed. Finally, strategies to succeed in academic medicine as an international graduate will be enumerated, and the key points will be highlighted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)