Thai medical graduates in the United States residency training programs: 1988-2003

Abstract

In the past 2 decades, international medical graduates (IMG) were needed to fill graduate medical education (GME) positions in the United States (U.S.). The author built a database of Thai medical graduates in accredited U.S. residency systems between 1988-2003, and analyzed the trend and opportunity for Thai IMG. During the 16-year study period, there were 281 Thai medical graduates who successfully entered residency in the U.S., with a rising trend that reached a peak between 1993-1994, and subsequently declined to about 10-15 per year Thai physicians entered U.S. residency program 4.2 +/- 3.3 years after medical school graduation. Thai IMGs were mostly in internal medicine (N=153, 54.4%) and pediatric residency programs (N=76, 27.1%), with much fewer in psychiatry (N=10), surgery (N=9), neurology (N=8), anesthesiology (N=7), and other specialties (N=18). Thai medical graduates tended to be clustered in a few residency programs. Half of the Thai graduates in the U.S. internal medicine residency were accepted in 9 programs; the largest were Texas Tech (Lubbock, N=18), Albert Einstein University (Philadelphia, N=14), and University of Hawaii (Honolulu, N=13). For pediatric residency, about half of the Thai graduates (56.6%) were in 6 programs; the largest were Christ Hospital (Oaklawn, N=11), University of Illinois at Chicago (N=11), and Jersey City Medical Center (N=9). After residency training, most Thais (94.5%) chose to do subspecialty training. The most popular medical subspecialties were cardiology, nephrology, and hematology-oncology. The most popular pediatric subspecialties were allergy-immunology, endocrinology, and cardiology. In conclusion, there are too few Thais in the U.S. residency system. This information may be helpful for Thai medical graduates who seek residency abroad.