Complex, Complicated, stressed, and tumultuous health system of USA

Complex, Complicated, stressed, and tumultuous health system  of USA

 Very little is taught about the main structure and history of the health system in the residency programs where thousands of foreign medical graduates FMG/International medical graduates (IMGs)  get their training.

International medical graduates (IMGs) comprise approximately 25% of the US physician workforce, with significant representation in primary care and care of vulnerable populations. Despite the central role of IMGs in the US healthcare system, understanding of their professional experiences is limited.

After interviewing  25  IMG physicians in 2010 in a published paper the authors surmise.


Four recurrent and unifying themes characterize these experiences
: 1) IMGs experience both overt and subtle forms of workplace bias and discrimination;
 2) IMGs recognize professional limitations as part of “the deal”; 
3) IMGs describe challenges in the transition to the culture and practice of medicine in the US;
 4) IMGs bring unique skills and advantages to the workplace.


"commonalities with experiences of other minority groups within the US healthcare system suggest that optimizing IMGs’ experiences may also improve the experiences of an increasingly diverse healthcare workforce"

This is pure and simple ignorance and Hubris on the part of these authors.
IMG is an all-inclusive term with multiple subdivisions.
9I will write a different  blog on the various subdivisions of IMGs another day


( Really!  not in my experience if not anything I have  found the  minorities (mainly African Americans no different or even worse than the whites in the treatment of Brown black  IMGs ) and the white IMGs from eastern european countries and the former USSR are a different story all together. and the Chinese and other south-east Asian, middle eastern, African and South American  Foreign doctors )
Another special group which gets discriminated and in turn discriminates against the Fresh off the  Boat  IMGs is American born /based 

Our final sample (Table 1) consisted of 25 IMG physicians, with a 93% participation rate. We achieved broad representation with regard to age, specialty, geographic regions of origin, and years of clinical experience in the US.

Table 1

Characteristics of Study Participants

Characteristic	Resulta
Median age (range), years	46 (30–65)
Female	11 (44)
Specialty
Family practice	7 (28)
Pediatrics	8 (32)
Internal medicine	10 (40)
Region of origin
Sub-Saharan Africa	6 (24)
South Asia	8 (32)
East Asia	5 (20)
Latin America	2 (8)
Middle East	4 (16)
Years since completed residency
0–5 years	5 (20)
6–10 years	6 (24)
11–15 years	7 (28)
16–20 years	3 (12)
20–25 years	1 (4)
>25 years	3 (12)

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aResults are range (mean) for age and number (%) for all other variables