Classes teach new IMGs American-style medicine

As the number of foreign-born international medical graduates grows, residencies seek out ways to ease their transitions.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Dec. 11, 2006.

Pelvic exams are not his forte. Male physicians do not perform such exams on women in India, where Venkata Mahesh Alla, MD, trained before heading to America to begin an internal medicine residency.

While many newly arrived foreign-born international medical graduates have to fumble through unfamiliar territory on their own, Dr. Alla was fortunate enough to be part of a week-long orientation program for foreign-born IMGs that Creighton University School of Medicine's internal medicine program created in 2005.

The Nebraska school is believed to have one of only a handful of formal programs geared toward helping these physicians. At least 14.7% of residents and at least 27.8% of internal medicine residents are here on a visa or are permanent residents, according to the AMA. With an increasing number of foreign-born IMGs coming to the United States, some expect more of these programs to develop.

"Educators are becoming more sensitive to this issue" and are increasingly aware that IMGs need a clinically focused orientation, said Edward L. Langston, MD, American Medical Association board chair-elect and a family physician in Lafayette, Ind.

Unfamiliar with the U.S. medical system, foreign-born IMGs face a different learning curve than their U.S. counterparts, which can lead to medical errors, irritated patients and frustrated hospital staff, educators said.

Joann Porter, MD, associate program director for internal medicine at Creighton, said growing complaints from hospital staff inspired her department's orientation program. About half of Creighton's nearly 70 internal medicine residents are IMGs.