Armed with reams of data, The Bakersfield Californian‘s Kellie Schmitt charged headlong into the potential minefield of issues surrounding foreign educated-physicians with “Importing Doctors.” The series delivers a thorough take on the ramifications of the fact that the majority of her county’s doctors attended medical school overseas. (The national average, for the record, is around 25 percent).
In addition to her opening piece, which considers the benefits and drawbacks of relying on international medical graduates, Schmitt filed follow-up installments keying in on specific questions raised by her overall investigation. Of particular interest is the clear line she draws between foreign-born physicians who attended medical school in their home country before they came to the United States and American-born physicians who attended schools, often located in Mexico and the Caribbean, that cater to students who were unable to gain admittance to American medical schools. It’s a distinction that a less-nuanced data analysis could easily overlook.
- Pace of foreign-physician influx may slow
- Are we creating a foreign brain-drain
- KMC’s multimillion dollar deal with Caribbean school marks part of controversial trend
- Concerns about the quality of Caribbean schools persist
- Many American students turn to Caribbean medical schools
- Foreign physicians in Kern share their stories
Finally, while the investigation’s results are illuminating, health care journalists will probably be even more interested in Schmitt’s “How we crunched the numbers” sidebar, which can be found on the left sidebar of this story. The paper used data from the state medical board and the American Board of Medical Specialties.
