Harvard Professor Eram Alam Discusses Her Just-Published Book, "The Care of Foreigners, How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare"

On this episode

About this episode

The US has effectively always suffered a physician shortage. Last year the AMA estimated a shortage of 86,000 by 2035. US policymakers have since 1965 addressed this problem by recruiting foreign born physicians (termed Foreign Medical Graduates or FMGs), mostly from Southeast Asia, largely India. Today FMEs, that account for 25-30% of the physician workforce, are disproportionately employed in Health Professional Shortage Areas or HPSAs in which there remains or persists a strong demand, e.g., HRSA recognizes over 7,500 primary care HPSAs. Nevertheless, Prof. Alam concludes stratifying our medical system can be interpreted in part as a cover up to a problem of long-term disinvestment in…