Glen Beck taking a swipe at Indian Med system and India.

[Med911]

@GoodMD2B

AFAIAC not to confound my self as even a fan of Glenn Beck, but he still seems to make great deal of sense in this particular video ---------- for the first time though ---------- other than that, I would still consider him an ultimate schmuck.

Now getting to the main point, since he(Glenn Beck) was talking in reference to the American Healthcare System, before a wise analysis can be made here the cause and effect and the opportunity cost of attending the Med School in the U.S. must be taken under consideration.

An average student pursuing an MD degree in the U.S. falls under financial obligations of a whopping $250,000 to $350,000 i.e just to break even, not to mention eight to ten years of their lives spent on education, on the top of that if specialization is needed which of course has become a necessity just to stay competitive in the market place ---------- if one decides to go the specialization route ---------- which most people do ---------- another one to seven years of hard work and countless dollars are needed depending on the track chosen.

The U.S. Produces approximately fifty four thousand MDs per year ---------- now as far as IMGs are concerned most of them are not even able to pass USMLE part one, for years and eventually drop out to work blue collar or in some cases even odd jobs ---------- the remaining ones who are able to somehow pass all USMLEs can only work as either general physicians or pediatricians within the United States and that is the Law of the land.

People who reach out to an extent of taking out such huge amounts of loans and spending long periods of their lives would definitely have a right to recover their initial investments plus the long term profits ---------- don’t they??? If they do not want to work for peanuts like Indian Doctors they would be righteous and justified to chose not to do so and should not be forced to do otherwise ---------- now should they???.

Within the past decade in order to gain access to the U.S. and European markets India has embarked on a liquidation strategy, it has been somewhat successful in the domain of the IT, but I don’t see it happening to the realm of the healthcare ---------- of course it is my personal opinion and I could be wrong.

I neither know the cost of education in India nor am I interested in finding out.

Nuff said!

Im a foreign med grad myself and I know a number of people who graduated on their first atempt with above 90 grades. One student I know personally scored a 98. Aother recent Indian graduate scored a 96 on Step 1 and a 99 Step 2.
I know students from Pakistan who aced their boards and got residency with ease.

The 1st time pass rate for FMG’s according to statistics is less then that of US students, but not considerably.
And much of the time its due to problems with English being a second language.

My experience is that at the end of the day, FMG’s are as qualified and knowledgeable as most US students.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that direct clinical experience of many of these foreign students is on par or better then most US students. Consider the fact that developing countries being as they are, allow students far greater direct contact with patients then at US hospitals.