Physician Scientist - American Association of Physicians of Indian ...

FEATURE
AAPI Journal • June 2009
Physician Scientist:
Participation By International Medical Graduates
by Jayesh Shah, M.D. and Dharmapuri Vidyasagar, M.D.
Jayesh Shah, M.D.
San Antonio, TX
“Despite considerable progress in
new treatments and therapies, too
many people continue to struggle
daily with diseases that have no
cure, like diabetes, mental illness,
and Alzheimer's disease," said
Edward D. Miller, M.D., dean and
CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine.
"Medical research is the beginning
of hope for millions of Americans,
and one of the best investments we
can make in our future." There is
little debate that the frontiers of
medicine should march forward.
There is enormous concern that the
economic forces are deterring
physicians from seeking a carrier in
scientific research.
There are serious concerns in the
academic circles that the pool of
physician scientists in US is steadily
decreasing. The Association of
American Medical Colleges
conducts a survey of all graduating
medical students in the country. In
1989, 14 percent expressed a strong
interest in research as a career; that
fraction fell to 9.4% percent in
2007. The Pipe-line of physicianscientists
is emptying at its source,
the young physician .There are
several reasons for this trend,
economics being in the forefront. US
medical graduates are burdened
with heavy loans by the time they
graduate from medical school. The
trend is to recover the economic
losses of long years of schooling and
training. There is a 25% decrease in
physician scientists on medical
school faulty today than a decade
ago. The institutions could draw
from the IMG physician pool to fill
this gap in much the same way as
they are utilizing them to serve the
medically underserved areas.
There is limited information on
IMG Physician Scientists. In a study
in 1998 Aranha (1) reported that
88% of the medical schools had at
least one IMG faculty member. In
the country 13.2 % of faculty is of
Asian origin second to white who
constitute 70% of the total. Up
until recently a vast majority of the
faculty of Asian origin were IMG
physicians. In recent years the
second generation Asians is seen in
increasing numbers on the faculty
rosters. Similar data on IMGs in
different specialties should be
gathered to better understand the
critical role of IMGs in meeting the
academic workforce needs. AAMC
recognizes this gap in information.
Although a few IMGs with J-1
visas have managed to pursue
research interests, there is no data
on their numbers. They are also not
eligible to compete for training
grants (T16/T32). Currently there are
very few options for the IMG
candidates engaged in research or
academic work to change their visa
status to H1-B, EB or O visas. The EB
visas and O visas are given to an
established researcher. Any federal
agency may ask for a J-1 visa waiver
for a person of exceptional merit. A
resident just completing the graduate
medical education training will not
have such credentials at this early
stage in their carrier.
People of Indian Origin have
contributed greatly to the brain pool
of US. The 2007 census shows that
there are 2.8 million (0.9% of US)
people of Indian Origin in the US.
They comprise 16.4% of the Asian
pool and are the third largest group.
A third of the engineers in the
Silicon Valley are of Indian Origin
and 7% of the high - Tec companies
are run by Indian CEO’s. Seventy
two percent participate in the US
workforce and 58% are in
managerial positions. There is ample
precedence to expect great
contributions from Indian physicians
in the scientific world.
There is a large pool of potential
physician scientists to draw from.
For the seventh consecutive year, the
number of first-year (PGY-1)
residency positions offered through
the residency matching program has
increased. A total of 22,427 firstyear
positions were offered an
increase of 187 positions compared
to last year. Of the 10,980 IMGs
who participated in the 2009 Match,
4,796 (43.7%) matched. Of the
7,484 IMG participants who were
not U.S. citizens, 3,112 (41.6%)
obtained first-year positions. In order
to make this carrier path attractive
and available to the IMG physician
several steps have to be taken.
Vidyasagar (2) has outlined these in
a recent article.
1) The IMG’s in US on J-1 visa
should be mentored to seek
physician scientist career and be
able to compete for T series NIH
grants.
Continued on page 18
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