Foreign Medical Graduates

Abstract

To the Editor.— I think it is an act of omission to disregard again the pool of American-born FMGs who can partially satisfy the demand for house staff members in postgraduate training programs. Assuming that the education received at foreign medical schools is equivalent for the native of that country and the foreign student (ie, the American studying there), once in postgraduate programs in the United States, the familiarity with our American culture plus fluency in English and occasionally a second language in which he or she studied medicine abroad puts the American-born FMG at an advantage in taking histories and performing physical examinations, two skills Weinstein cited as deficient in foreign-born FMGs. As stated in Future Recommendations No. 1, it seems that educational support for FMGs can be updated with special emphasis on programs for American-born FMGs, such as the Fifth Pathway. It is time to support our own