Moving to another country as a physician-scientist

[amethyst131]

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I was curious whether it’d be possible to practice as a physician scientist anywhere other than the US? I know that it would basically be impossible to have an 80-20 split, but are there any other countries that have a career path like this? I’m curious if there are any US-trained physician scientists who moved abroad after their training and were still able to practice and conduct research.

 

[Dormouse]

to the best of my knowledge, you cannot immediately practice with a US medical license in the UK, EU, or Canada, without undergoing additional supervised training (e.g residency) and relicensing. There are definitely positions and training paths for practicing as a physician scientist in most other countries. In fact, it may be easier and faster, since medical training everywhere else is an extended undergraduate degree.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

Maybe, but it would be challenging due to licensing and credentialing in a foreign country. The only physician-scientist I know who went to go do research in a different country did so as the chief research officer of a major pharmaceutical company. Of course, there's no reason for them to see patients anymore (which was probably part of the incentive to uproot his family and school age children and move them to the overseas).

 

[Neuronix]

I looked into this. Generally Europe and Canada are much more protectionist of their positions from foreigners than the USA.

 

[amethyst131]

to the best of my knowledge, you cannot immediately practice with a US medical license in the UK, EU, or Canada, without undergoing additional supervised training (e.g residency) and relicensing. There are definitely positions and training paths for practicing as a physician scientist in most other countries. In fact, it may be easier and faster, since medical training everywhere else is an extended undergraduate degree.

Could you please tell me which countries have these positions? Moving to a different country is very much a hypothetical for me at this point, but I think I could pass a relicensing process in another country.

 

[Dormouse]

Could you please tell me which countries have these positions?

Countries with academic medicine. UK and Canada for sure.

 

[Serac]

There are a lot of places you could do this and I don't think the outlook is as pessimistic as is being portrayed. Countries like Ireland, Singapore, and Australia make it fairly easy for US MDs to pass registration and licensure requirements, and many of the faculty at their academic hospitals were not trained in-country.
I think the biggest thing keeping more US physician-scientists from doing this is that in many cases both the salary/compensation and the available research funding are often far less than they would be in the US.

 

[DoctorWhere]

There are a lot of places you could do this and I don't think the outlook is as pessimistic as is being portrayed. Countries like Ireland, Singapore, and Australia make it fairly easy for US MDs to pass registration and licensure requirements, and many of the faculty at their academic hospitals were not trained in-country.
I think the biggest thing keeping more US physician-scientists from doing this is that in many cases both the salary/compensation and the available research funding are often far less than they would be in the US.

+1 for Singapore

 

[TheTravelingShrink]

Every country will have different academic environments, but in many cases, you don't need additional training for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and a surprising number of other countries.

14 Countries Where American Physicians Can Practice Medicine Abroad | Hippocratic Adventures

Here is a preliminary list of countries where American Physicians Can Practice Medicine Abroad. - a list that will grow as we research and learn from our

www.hippocraticadventures.com

 

[tr]

One of my fellow MSTP grads (US born and trained) is now faculty at a European university (and is extremely academically productive) so it seems to be possible. Funding is harder to come by in Europe I think is the main barrier. Nationally specific training requirements have the potential to be a hassle but I think can mostly be managed by a combination of patience and special dispensations for specialists with unique expertise.