Question about MD/PhD status

[LittleMatches]

So I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question and I am sorry if it is not. The issue is that my mother is an MD graduate from a Moscow University and she has also completed a PhD in Biochemistry as well. She has accredited her PhD in the US. However, now she is having trouble understanding the status of her MD since she recently got a new job and wants to know whether it is worth the hassle to get a license.
She knows that she completed a Research Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, but does not know if that in any way affects the status of her medical degree.
What would be the steps that she would need to take in order for her foreign MD to count in America? Any information would help. Thank you.

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[Medstart108]

Your mother would need to do a Residency in the United States or Canada for her to be able to use her MD. The research fellowship doesn't help because its research, she needs to take care of patients in a Medical Residency. The issue for her depending on her age is that she would need to write the USMLE and they are highly difficult medical exams that will require both a high level of medical knowledge as well as clinical knowledge and she may not be able to score well enough to do medical residency. Medical residency is also a highly stressful work environment that often comprises 80+ hours a week and depending on her age she may not be able to cope and juggle with the pressures of life.

The whole process will take many years, if your mother has a job currently and is over the age of 45 there is no question I would not try to become a medical doctor in the US. Financially, emotionally, realistically it wouldn't be worth it. Its a real option to attempt if she is under the age of 35 but in between those years it depends on life circumstances.

 

[the argus]

So I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question and I am sorry if it is not. The issue is that my mother is an MD graduate from a Moscow University and she has also completed a PhD in Biochemistry as well. She has accredited her PhD in the US. However, now she is having trouble understanding the status of her MD since she recently got a new job and wants to know whether it is worth the hassle to get a license.
She knows that she completed a Research Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, but does not know if that in any way affects the status of her medical degree.
What would be the steps that she would need to take in order for her foreign MD to count in America? Any information would help. Thank you.

In general, these are the steps

1. Check the licensing board websites for each state to see if graduates from her medical school are eligible to be licensed in the state. This doesn't take as long as it seems, as many states defer to other larger states (i.e. many states use the list that California or New York creates.) This is important because depending on her school, it might not matter what she does if she is not eligible for a license in the state she wants to live in.

2. Pass USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK, Step 2 CS, and Step 3. Step 1 and Step 2 CK/CS need to be passed before starting residency (and in reality before applying to residency). Step 3 needs to be passed before finishing residency.

3. Create a competitive application for residency. This would include, competitive scores on all Steps (with no failures), doing observerships in US hospitals to gain some amount of US clinical experience, and getting letters of recommendation from US physicians in the specialty of choice.

4. Applying for, getting accepted at, and completing a US medical residency program. Since your mom is an IMG, she would need to complete at least 3 years of residency training (this varies by state, but in most states it's 3 years) to be eligible for a medical license. As mentioned above, these years will require a very significant time commitment (60-80+ hours per week).

So she would likely be looking at a >5 year, basically full-time, process to becoming a licensed physician in the US.