Book Description

In a follow-up to a 1980 report, GAO reviewed activities that have taken place to address problems created by U.S. citizens studying medicine abroad and returning to this country to practice medicine. GAO found that none of its 1980 report recommendations, which were directed toward ensuring that U.S. foreign medical graduates were receiving education and training comparable to that provided to graduates of U.S. schools, had been implemented. The issues that the recommendations were intended to address still need attention. Although federal, state, and private organizations have taken some actions to address individual problems related to U.S. citizens studying in foreign medical schools, a more coordinated approach is needed to address these problems. GAO suggests two alternative courses of legislative action that could lead to the development of such an approach. Representatives of federal, state, and private organizations who attended a GAO-sponsored conference on issues relating to U.S. graduates of foreign medical schools agreed that the alternatives would alleviate many of the problems being encountered in the licensure and credentialing of foreign medical school graduates. At a second conference, representatives of medical schools located in the Caribbean and Mexico and U.S. advocate groups for foreign medical graduates reached no consensus on the need for either alternative.