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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   30231 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 9, 2024

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Do these people want to come? I'm not sure they do.

From the UK? I assure you they do.

Why don't they then?

I wasn't able to find a good single source of truth but medical students can do it (which Scott did(ish)) if they are interested. It's harder than it would be a for a U.S. grad but likely much much easier than an Indian medical school grad.

The BMA website implies that some "adult" (saying it this way because I can never remember the British terms) doctors may be able to come over without any specific retraining but does not provide details.

Training is probably somewhat worse in the UK but not enough that I'd have any complaints about anyone coming over (although this would obviously be bad for the UK).

The one I'm married to wanted to in 2014/15. She passed the USMLE had her ECFMG certificate, recent clinical experience in a western European native English speaking country and didn't require visa sponsorship as the spouse of a US citizen, applied to a variety of programs and failed to match, not even any interviews. ☹️

I appreciate the N!

Most of the countries that seem to match into residency in the US seem to have pretty well developed infrastructure to help explain what to do, outside of that its hard to know what locations are programs are realistic. It's a brutal process even for US MD grads.

:/

She may want to try again. Any advice on trying following a ~10 year career break?

I'm not sure it is possible in the sense that I believe the USMLE scores become invalid after a certain period of time (somewhere in the 5-10 year range?). Would need to investigate that and potentially move quickly.

I don't know if you can take them again if they've expired but it would be extremely hard most likely (on just the studying level if nothing else).

If they are still valid though - NYC almost always has a bunch of unmatched FM and IM spots. That's probably the best place to look. EM has been off and on grossly uncompetitive in the last five years but it hasn't been consistent. Psych used to be a place people looked but it doesn't really work anymore. Peds may have more spots open now.

HCA and other for-profit places have started offering program slots and they aren't popular with US grads but could be a good spot for FMG/IMGs

You need to redo your residency if you want to become a US doctor even if you are a consultant with 15 years of experience in the UK. That is enough of a barrier that prevents people from coming over, never mind the extremely onerous visa requirements the US imposes on foreign professionals of every trade and type.

The official stance of the BMA per their website is:

"Doctors who are already on the UK specialist register may be able to apply for partial exemption from the residency programme requirement. To check if you are eligible, you should contact the relevant specialty board in the US."

My guess is that the answer is not yes or no but "it depends."

It happens a handful of times a year for people who are usually elite figures in surgical and clinical specialties, for example the surgical director of a top UK hospital trust hired to run a similarly-sized team in the US (who, for reputation’s sake, is still expected to do some surgery/clinical work on the side), or a renowned psychiatrist hired by a US university/teaching hospital whose application is obviously expedited for similar reasons.

For any normal senior doctor they will in 99% of cases have to redo residency unless they’re a global figure of import, presenting in top slots at the bigger international conferences in their field and have a lot of people on side in the US.

So sure, if you’re a towering figure in ophthalmology and are friends with half the people on the leadership committee of the American Board of Ophthalmology or whatever and get hired for a top position at a hospital in NYC or LA then you can probably skip it and they’ll wave you through. Otherwise, the possibility of an exemption is a myth.

Hah! Thank you, that's just what I was theorizing in the other thread line.

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