Underserved - Overview and Models
International Medical Education
Iraq Situation End of Year
2003 What You will not hear from the News Media
Greetings from the US for medical educators from other countries
We do not have any current contacts or meetings in other countries.
We are basically a small group of medical educators involved with 2 US health
care associations
We in RME are officially a part of the Research and Education Constituency Group
of the the National Rural Health Association - a diverse group of rural hospital
administrators and folks involved in health care of all types
We also participate in activities with the Society of Teachers of Family
Medicine - the teaching arm of family medicine in the US
We have a list serve of about 400 folks who teach and encourage doctors to
choose and stay in rural areas. You are welcome to participate in the list
serve, ask questions, or post responses.
I moderate the RME list serve and would be happy to add you to the list. Just
Email me at rbowman@unmc.edu
The www.ruralmedicaleducation.org
web site is my personal effort, with lots of links and information from a number
of sources beyond myself. At one point we had a Journal of Rural Medical
Education but this stopped at one issue. Folks in Australia put out a much
better and peer-reviewed electronic journal, the international electronic
journal of rural health, or Rural and Remote Health. This journal may be of some
use to you in India and includes articles from all continents with a bias toward
those speaking English. I am an associate editor for this journal.
The Journal of Rural Health is one of our outlets through the National Rural
Health Association, although it is mostly a US publication.
The principles are the same regardless of country:
Support the kind of secondary and college education that will prepare students
well. Find the kids that are devoted to service and caring, the ones who come
from more humble origins and have overcome obstacles and want to make a
difference and want to return, and help them to do well enough to get into
medical schools. Train them well for the situation that they will return to.
Selecting the right students is the key. Efforts in later parts of medical
school or after are largely wasted and usually more costly, less caring,
temporary, and have little long term impact to address real needs in rural areas
for health, education, jobs, and leadership. Ideally the best vehicle is a
partnership between medical schools, colleges, health advisors, rural
practitioners, and rural communities that facilitate the above in admissions,
training, student activities, and outreach.
Robert C. Bowman, M.D.
rbowman@unmc.edu
There is also a student group in the US with a national conference that involves
US medical students and encourages them into international rotations and
careers. www.ihmec.org
Also there is an international list serve of family medicine physicians in the
US who do much the same. I can forward your request to belong to this list serve
if you wish.
Regarding India:
I am doing research on the 2002 family medicine residency graduates. There
are about 3800 of these graduates each year. These are mostly grads from US
medical schools however 153 went to medical school in India at a great variety
of locations and ages. This does not include information on graduates from
medical school in India not choosing family medicine. I suspect far more chose
internal medicine programs. Of those 153 chosing family medicine from medical
schools in India, 114 of the graduates went to the most urban locations, 18
located in large rural towns, 7 chose small towns, and 6 chose frontier or very
rural areas 31 of 153 is about 20%, not a bad percentage choosing rural,
especially for medical schools from outside the US. The total for all graduates
is 21.7% . Some of these graduates from other countries are doing service in
exchange for visas and may or may not stay in rural areas or in family medicine.
Although many communities and neighborhoods appreciate the help of doctors from
other countries, those of us in rural medical education consider this matter to
be a serious concern. These doctors represent a great deal of lost investment in
terms of education and human potential that is badly needed in their country of
origin. This is why states, provinces, regions, or countries need to do what
they can to develop and retain their own doctors instead of encouraging doctors
from other countries to come and help.
Economics of International
Medical Graduates