IMG in your program

[Maskchamp]

Hi everyone,

Just curious for those of you who started residency or are attending. How many IMGs do you usually run into or are working with? Any particular specialty?

Thanks

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[mimelim]

IMGs, very few. FMGs, all over the place in many if not most specialties.

 

[EmImgOrChildPsych]

Hi everyone,

Just curious for those of you who started residency or are attending. How many IMGs do you usually run into or are working with? Any particular specialty?

Thanks

IMGs, very few. FMGs, all over the place in many if not most specialties.

IMG meaning USIMG? I take it that IMG=FMG?

 

[mimelim]

IMG meaning USIMG? I take it that IMG=FMG?

Colloquially, IMG means US citizen who has graduated from an MD program not based in the United States. For the most part it means people who did medical school in the Caribbean, although some will come from Poland, Hungry, Israel, Australia, etc. FMG refers to non-US citizens who have completed medical school outside of the US. These are physicians from literally every corner of the world who have trained elsewhere but emigrated for a variety of reasons. While the definitions blur a little and certainly overlap and/or are confusing, there is a distinction between the different training pathways.

Everyone has their own biases, and personally, from a purely academic/student/medical knowledge standpoint, there is a substantial gap between FMGs and IMGs. In general, it is as hard or harder to get into medical school overseas and while nepotism/money plays a bigger role overseas for some, there is little question that you have to be a very strong student to get into medical school.

As for my experiences. I am in a large, very diverse city. The physicians on staff at our hospitals come from just about everywhere. There are very few that took the IMG route. It is far more common to hear about someone doing their medical school in England, Egypt or India and their residency in the US than the Caribbean.

 

[Maskchamp]

Colloquially, IMG means US citizen who has graduated from an MD program not based in the United States. For the most part it means people who did medical school in the Caribbean, although some will come from Poland, Hungry, Israel, Australia, etc. FMG refers to non-US citizens who have completed medical school outside of the US. These are physicians from literally every corner of the world who have trained elsewhere but emigrated for a variety of reasons. While the definitions blur a little and certainly overlap and/or are confusing, there is a distinction between the different training pathways.

Everyone has their own biases, and personally, from a purely academic/student/medical knowledge standpoint, there is a substantial gap between FMGs and IMGs. In general, it is as hard or harder to get into medical school overseas and while nepotism/money plays a bigger role overseas for some, there is little question that you have to be a very strong student to get into medical school.

As for my experiences. I am in a large, very diverse city. The physicians on staff at our hospitals come from just about everywhere. There are very few that took the IMG route. It is far more common to hear about someone doing their medical school in England, Egypt or India and their residency in the US than the Caribbean.

That is quite interesting, and a really good answer; never new that there was even a term of "FMG". I'm Canadian so I guess I fall into that category.

That's nice to hear. If you don't mind, do you find a difference in quality of care? Or in how they do certain procedures? Are the FMGs looked down upon? Do they do an appendectomy for instance in a completely different way? Do you like working with them or not? Any specific graduates from say Europe vs South America vs Australia etc that you find different/better/worse?

Thank you!

 

[Maskchamp]

That is quite interesting, and a really good answer; never new that there was even a term of "FMG". I'm Canadian so I guess I fall into that category.

That's nice to hear. If you don't mind, do you find a difference in quality of care? Or in how they do certain procedures? Are the FMGs looked down upon? Do they do an appendectomy for instance in a completely different way? Do you like working with them or not? Any specific graduates from say Europe vs South America vs Australia etc that you find different/better/worse?

Thank you!

Colloquially, IMG means US citizen who has graduated from an MD program not based in the United States. For the most part it means people who did medical school in the Caribbean, although some will come from Poland, Hungry, Israel, Australia, etc. FMG refers to non-US citizens who have completed medical school outside of the US. These are physicians from literally every corner of the world who have trained elsewhere but emigrated for a variety of reasons. While the definitions blur a little and certainly overlap and/or are confusing, there is a distinction between the different training pathways.

Everyone has their own biases, and personally, from a purely academic/student/medical knowledge standpoint, there is a substantial gap between FMGs and IMGs. In general, it is as hard or harder to get into medical school overseas and while nepotism/money plays a bigger role overseas for some, there is little question that you have to be a very strong student to get into medical school.

As for my experiences. I am in a large, very diverse city. The physicians on staff at our hospitals come from just about everywhere. There are very few that took the IMG route. It is far more common to hear about someone doing their medical school in England, Egypt or India and their residency in the US than the Caribbean.

I'm an IMG, that's what I meant, sorry. Perhaps applies to canada in the same way.

 

[mimelim]

That is quite interesting, and a really good answer; never new that there was even a term of "FMG". I'm Canadian so I guess I fall into that category.

That's nice to hear. If you don't mind, do you find a difference in quality of care? Or in how they do certain procedures? Are the FMGs looked down upon? Do they do an appendectomy for instance in a completely different way? Do you like working with them or not? Any specific graduates from say Europe vs South America vs Australia etc that you find different/better/worse?

Thank you!

You are talking about generalizing to thousands of people. There is no obvious gap in quality of care or how they do things, likely since the vast majority have done their residency in the United States. What is generalizable is that familiarity with language and culture is a core part of medicine. Individuals (regardless of where they did medical school) will struggle based on that alone. All the medical knowledge in the world is not going to help you if you can't communicate effectively with your patients and your colleagues. Are FMGs looked down on? I don't think that in practice there is overt bias. Certainly for residency selection there US-MD are preferred.

 

[IMGASMD]

You are talking about generalizing to thousands of people. There is no obvious gap in quality of care or how they do things, likely since the vast majority have done their residency in the United States. What is generalizable is that familiarity with language and culture is a core part of medicine. Individuals (regardless of where they did medical school) will struggle based on that alone.

Had an intern when I was a med student came from India, every time talk to anyone would do the head bopping and just kept saying okay to reply EVERY SINGLE sentences. By the end of the month, I just had to tel him, that’s just not the culture norm here.

A lot of FMGs may be able to speak the language and have phenomenal step scores, but what they do on daily basis is much important to patient care.

 

[DexterMorganSK]

Hi everyone,

Just curious for those of you who started residency or are attending. How many IMGs do you usually run into or are working with? Any particular specialty?

Thanks

It all depends on the location. For example, the majority of city hospitals in NY are filled with IMGs/FMGs; but, this is not true in Cali, due to Cali strict laws.
In NY, I have seen them mostly working in IM/FM/Psy.

 

[Maskchamp]

That's interesting. Anyone know the opposite actually? US grads that instead go overseas to practice?

 

[IMGASMD]

That's interesting. Anyone know the opposite actually? US grads that instead go overseas to practice?

What is interesting?
There aren’t many places in the world that can afford to pay doctors enough to offset American doctors’ student loans is my understanding. I am sure most doctors are making a comfortable living in their own country. But when you start off with $200,000 in loans, that makes it difficult to live somewhere which cannot provide enough salary to pay the loans off in a reasonable timeframe.

 

[Maskchamp]

What is interesting?
There aren’t many places in the world that can afford to pay doctors enough to offset American doctors’ student loans is my understanding. I am sure most doctors are making a comfortable living in their own country. But when you start off with $200,000 in loans, that makes it difficult to live somewhere which cannot provide enough salary to pay the loans off in a reasonable timeframe.

That's a big flaw in the US system. No education should cost that much, that is crazy. Lawsuits and tons of liability also doesn't really exist in Europe.

 

[IMGASMD]

That's a big flaw in the US system. No education should cost that much, that is crazy. Lawsuits and tons of liability also doesn't really exist in Europe.

Bruh, you’re preaching to the choirs. It ain’t gonna get fixed any time soon. Not much incentives to fix it either; however, that’s the reality.

And 200 is probably at the lower end of things. That’s also after med school, and during residency interests compounding on top of that.....

 

[Maskchamp]

Bruh, you’re preaching to the choirs. It ain’t gonna get fixed any time soon. Not much incentives to fix it either; however, that’s the reality.

And 200 is probably at the lower end of things. That’s also after med school, and during residency interests compounding on top of that.....

Oh yea, forgot about the interest. Something like 7% right? That's ridiculous, not to mention somewhat unethical...they shouldn't be making profit off a pour soul, especially like that going after someone who is going to be a huge help to society.

How did that start anyway??? Who is even in charge of that? Really really really not fair to you guys. I mean, beyond not fair.

 

[Weirdy]

Oh yea, forgot about the interest. Something like 7% right? That's ridiculous, not to mention somewhat unethical...they shouldn't be making profit off a pour soul, especially like that going after someone who is going to be a huge help to society.

How did that start anyway??? Who is even in charge of that? Really really really not fair to you guys. I mean, beyond not fair.

.....where are you going with this thread?

 

[Redpancreas]

Colloquially, IMG means US citizen who has graduated from an MD program not based in the United States. For the most part it means people who did medical school in the Caribbean, although some will come from Poland, Hungry, Israel, Australia, etc. FMG refers to non-US citizens who have completed medical school outside of the US. These are physicians from literally every corner of the world who have trained elsewhere but emigrated for a variety of reasons. While the definitions blur a little and certainly overlap and/or are confusing, there is a distinction between the different training pathways.

Everyone has their own biases, and personally, from a purely academic/student/medical knowledge standpoint, there is a substantial gap between FMGs and IMGs. In general, it is as hard or harder to get into medical school overseas and while nepotism/money plays a bigger role overseas for some, there is little question that you have to be a very strong student to get into medical school.

As for my experiences. I am in a large, very diverse city. The physicians on staff at our hospitals come from just about everywhere. There are very few that took the IMG route. It is far more common to hear about someone doing their medical school in England, Egypt or India and their residency in the US than the Caribbean.

So glad I wasn't the only one who thought this was a thing.