FOREIGN MEDICAL GRADUATES AND UNITED-STATES PHYSICIAN SUPPLY - OLD ISSUES AND NEW QUESTIONS

Recent increases in the number of foreign medical graduates (FMGs) in U.S. hospital-training positions raise new questions about the future role of FMGs in U.S. medicine. Despite an historical surplus of physic ians, forces such as greater demand for resident house officers, stabi lization in undergraduate medical education enrollment, increase in de mand for medical services, growth in both the number of women in medic ine and physician employment in group practices, and continuing imbala nces in the distribution of physicians favor FMG migration to the Unit ed States. Health system reform must be sensitive to the historical, c urrent, and future role FMGs play in medical care delivery, especially in regard to service in underserved areas, specialties, and employmen t settings.