i went on most of my prelim/TY interviews unless there was a conflict. had a few prelim/TY that conflicted with specialty interviews, so i canceled those. i liked the traveling and interviews dont burn me out. it’s fun for me.
LOL.
I dropped by D2’s house to leave off some mail that came to the house. I ran into one of her besties–she’s a MS4. She was driving her new “doctor car”–a 2017 convertible Volkswagen.
While not as fancy as the BMWs I’ve seen in the neighborhood driven by the medical residents, it was pretty snazzy.
Really nice early graduation present from mom & dad.
I’m baaaaaack (for a little bit during some elective time)
Third year is fun - easier than the final 6 months of the PhD for sure. Some minor surprises in terms of what specialties I’ve enjoyed but I’m relatively unchanged in terms of deciding between 2 specialties.
re “doctor money” my Brown classmates who went straight through and did specialties with 3 year residencies without fellowships (e.g. medicine, peds, EM) are now attendings so one of my friends just bought a 5 BR house. No kids yet so it’s a massive amount of space for now.
Welcome back Dr. Brown!
Glad to see ya!!! We miss you!!!
Anyone else here have a child going thru residency interviews?
Fingers crossed! So far, son’s interviews are going very well and he’s been able to cancel a few.
Can’t wait until Match Day!
And it’s starting…
D2 has been invited for a 1-on-1 dinner with dept chair of her future specialty next week. I’m sure they’ll be discussing residency application strategies and potential away sites.
BTW, D2 has chosen a specialty that I would never in a million year have guessed she was interested in 3 years ago.
Son finished all of his residency interviews a couple of weeks ago, so now he’s figuring out how to rank his favorites. He has about 6 that are his top choices, but figuring which is number one and so forth is still up in the air. Can’t wait until Match Day!
https://www.statnews.com/2017/02/02/match-day-trump-medical-students/
The above was passed on to me by the wife of someone high up in medical education and I thought it might interest some of you. It is about match day for foreign students with the additional dynamic of the immigrant restrictions currently in play. Keep in mind that if we get political the thread will be shut down.
There is also a great deal of anxiety among FMGs because a bill revising HB1 visa requirements will be introduced to Congress shortly. HB1 visas are one of the two most commonly issued to international medical residents (including Canadians). Among the proposed changes would be requiring a minimum salary for foreign visa holders that is significantly in excess of what medical residencies and fellowships pay.
Both actions put many rural clinics and small town community hospital programs in jeopardy since it’s FMGs who tend to fill these positions that AMGs don’t want. While the number of AMGs has increased considerably --and will continue to increase for the next decade-- we are not yet at the point where there are enough AMGs to fill these least desirable positions.
That may be where the uncertainty is, but I think the HB visa restrictions would have a much larger impact on US healthcare than banning those 7 countries.
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While the number of AMGs has increased considerably --and will continue to increase for the next decade-- we are not yet at the point where there are enough AMGs to fill these least desirable positions.
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True, but are there enough IMGs from countries not affected by the ban to fill those remaining spots?
And, are Americans who go to foreign med schools considered to be AMGs or something else? Does the ban on several countries help American students attending foreign med schools get residencies?
While it’s certainly upsetting and frustrating for anyone working towards doing a residency in the US, we’ve seen countless posts here that the number of graduating doctors is increasing, but not the number of residencies.
And what about DO students? My son met a few DO students at his interviews. Will the ban help DO students get MD residencies?
AMG=American Medical School Graduate (includes both MD and DO grads)
US-IMG =US citizen International Medical school Graduate
IMG =International Medical Graduate
FMG= Foreign citizen International Medical Graduate or Foreign Medical Graduate
A post by a program director over on SDN, pointed out that there are currently enough US citizen medical grads from the Caribbean/Ireland/Poland/Australia to fill the balance of available residency positions left after all US MDs and DOs have been matched.
I’ve seen a few people suggesting that given the current political situation the Match be evolving toward a two phase process—all AMGs get matched first and after they’ve been matched, US-IMGs get to scramble for whatever is left.
All of which is a shame because FMGs who do practice in the US tend to have higher USMLE scores (needed simply to qualify for a US residency) and according to one study (see: [U.S</a>. patients have lower mortality rates with foreign-trained doctors](US Patient Mortality Lower With Non-US-Trained Physicians) ) have lower patient mortality rates than their AMG peer doctors at the same hospitals.
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All of which is a shame because FMGs who do practice in the US tend to have higher USMLE scores (needed simply to qualify for a US residency) and according to one study (see: U.S. patients have lower mortality rates with foreign-trained doctors ) have lower patient mortality rates than their AMG peer doctors at the same hospitals.
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Interesting.
Not all AMGs are affected, are they? Those from Canada, Euro countries, Australia, China, India, etc, are not affected, are they?
While certainly a number from the banned countries have high scores, but I imagine that the many/most of the high scorers are from Asian countries, including India…and they’re not banned, or am I confused.
No, you’ve misread/misunderstood a few things.
American citizens who attend medical school outside the US and Canada are not AMGs. They are US-IMGs.
Right now neither US-IMGs** nor FMGs from countries not covered by the travel ban are affected. The latter group (non-US citizens) may be effectively shut out of US residencies in the future by proposed changes to US visa programs.
The study (originally published in the BMJ–original article here-- [Quality of care delivered by general internists in US hospitals who graduated from foreign versus US medical schools: observational study](http://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.j273)) does not distinguish among the many countries of origin for FMGs included in the study.
But any foreign-educated physician–whether US citizen or foreigner–that wants to practice medicine in the US needs high board scores ( higher than AMGs)–or they simply don’t get interviewed for residencies. It’s generally safe to assume that all foreign educated physicians have very good USMLE scores regardless of the country where they attended medical school.
**There is at least one US-IMG who has been caught up in the travel ban. He is US citizen/green card holder from Colorado who studied medicine in Iraq and did a 2 year research fellowship at NIH. He was visiting friends in Iraq before returning to the US to await his Match results when he was stopped from boarding a plane home.
For anyone interested in the role of FMGs, the AAMC published a "Physician Workforce Profile" annually with state-by-state profile snapshots. Nationally an average 18% of all practicing US physicians are foreign born and trained. In 9 states (TX, FL, NY, NJ, CT, IL, NV, WV, DE) FMGs make up between 26 and 53% of all practicing physicians. Lol…I mistyped. I meant IMG…not AMG. I know that difference. I know that citizens aren’t affected.
I meant to type:
Not all IMGs are affected, are they? Those from Canada, Euro countries, Australia, China, India, etc, are not affected, are they?
While certainly a number from the banned countries have high scores, but I imagine that the many/most of the high scorers are from Asian countries, including India…and they’re not banned, or am I confused.
I wonder how h-1Bs work for residents today. I thought the minimum was 60k and I am not aware of any program that much for residents. They are proposing the minimum pay to be above 100k.
H-1B rules will affect every country and not just the 7 currently under review.
There are residency programs that pay $60K/year and above.
^^
Are you saying that a single (no kids) h-1B has to earn $60k+…if married, can spouse earning count, too?
Who is proposing $100k? Are you saying that a single person would need to earn $100K+ to be h-1B if this proposal passes?
Seems like there’s room for negotiation. $100k maybe right for a family who doesn’t have health insurance. $60k may be ok for a single person who has health insurance provided.
I know this isn’t popular but even here on CC we see many green card students/families qualifying for foodstamps, free lunch, Pell, etc. It’s not supposed to work that way. We have enough natural-born low income. We don’t need to import welfare-recipients.
Low income immigrants are supposed to have multi-year sponsors who promise to support their relatives so that they don’t end up on welfare. The sponsor’s support is supposed to last either until citizenship or 10 years of paid employment.
In fact, we’ve seen many here on CC say that their “sponsors” essentially lied and promised support, only to quickly stop support and the family ends up on welfare.
I know this sounds “mean,” but money isn’t infinite and we have a domestic poverty problem of own that needs addressing first.
Green card sponsors and H1B sponsors are not the same thing.
Only employers can sponsor someone for a H1B visa. Basically anyone can sponsor someone for a green card if they are a family member or belong to a recognized refugee group.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa
Only 65,000 H1B visas are granted each year. The vast bulk of them go to the tech industry. (The application process for H1B visas is onerous and requires an employer to apply 6 months in advance to enter the lottery for the limited number of visas.)
The $100K would be a for a single individual. As I understand it, the purpose of the proposed $100K salary minimum is to force employers to hire Americans first before importing “cheaper” foreign programmers/engineers/scientists.
BTW, the number of physicians/therapists/clinicians in the US on H1B visas is small–estimated to be around 20,000. (See: [Academic H1Bs By The Numbers](http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/01/academic-h-1bs-numbers)).
However, since the H1B visa allows the holder to apply for permanent US residency, it is the preferred route for many foreign-trained physicians. The other commonly used visa is the J1–which requires the holder to return to their home country for a minimum of 2 years when their visa expires after 3 years before they are allowed to petition to re-enter the US.