Do we need International Medical Graduates in the US?

I will skip the doubt: YES WE NEED International Medical Graduates (IMG’s). The entire system in the US has noted to have a constant decrease of physicians and an entire community to that needs more of them.

Currently at least 24% of practicing physicians are considered IMG’s, that is actually not the number that I’m looking for, my question that I have is what could we do to improve the quality of care in the US.

Thank you Assembly member Carrillo for the opportunity to testify in support of AB2478

Will share an example: you need oxygen. The older you get for Syndrome “X”, you need more. You have a great machine that is producing it, but it kind of helps now, but you know on the long term you will be very sick if you do not have enough. Even that you tried very hard right now to innovate, at the level of creation will take years before you get the oxygen. What options do you have?

You start in a journey. There are some machines that know how to produce oxygen in your area that are here, but are right producing other things. Why not incorporate that and acknowledge that we need to act now to bridge for the future, giving yourself oxygen in the meantime until we actually have a long term plan working.

Assembly Member Wendy Carrillo presenting the International Medical Graduate: study at the California State Assembly Business and Professions, Chaired by Assembly Member Evan Low

I’m actually one of those “IMG Machines”. In the US we have number of IMG Physicians working outside of the realm of medicine. Now, specially with the Covid-19 Pandemic, the healthcare system is stretch and will show all the vulnerable communities, creating a different wave of side effects in our country.

I was honored to give testimony to start a conversation in California to bring a study to understand the barriers and opportunities that we have in order to bring oxygen to our communities.

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My bill, AB 2478 made it out of Business and Professionals Committee today! AB2478 would direct the California Medical Board to conduct a study on increasing the existing pool of international medical graduates by January 1, 2022, thereby laying the foundation for more language and cultural competent medical care. According to research conducted by the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative, there is a ratio of 62 physicians per 100,000 Spanish speakers. AB 2478 was a pre-COVID-19 issue and this global pandemic has only further intensified the shortage for vulnerable populations who are experiencing health disparities at alarming rates. Thank you Berenice Nuñez Constant of to AltaMed Health Services for working with me on this issue and to our key witnesses Dr. Ilan Shapiro, MD Medical Director, Health Education and Wellness, AltaMed and Sonja Diaz, Founding Executive Director, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative. #HealthForAll // ¡Mi legislatura, AB 2478, salió del Comité de Empresas y Profesionales hoy! AB2478 ordenaría a la Junta Médica de California que realice un estudio sobre el aumento del grupo existente de graduados médicos internacionales para el 1 de enero de 2022, sentando así las bases para una atención médica competente más cultural y lingüística. Según una investigación realizada por la Iniciativa de Política y Póliza de UCLA, hay una proporción de 62 médicos por cada 100,000 personas que solo hablan español. AB 2478 era un problema anterior a COVID-19 y esta pandemia global solo ha intensificado aún más la escasez de poblaciones vulnerables sin acceso a atención médica. Gracias a Berenice Nuñez Constant de la Clínica AltaMed por trabajar conmigo en este tema y a nuestros testigos, Dr. Ilan Shapiro, Director de , Educación de salud y bienestar, AltaMed y Sonja Díaz, Directora de Iniciativa de Política y Póliza de UCLA.

A post shared by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (@asmcarrillo) on May 21, 2020 at 11:32am PDT