(Dr. Yousuf is on the left)
The following is from 1987 Michigan Psychiatric Society Newsletter of which this writer was a contributor.
While most IMGS who have come to US in the mid 1980s onwards immediately got rights equal to US domestic
medical graduates, they are unaware of the struggle that members of APPNA waged on their behalf.
In Michigan for example a FMG had to do 3 years of postgrad residency while a domestic medical graduate
had only one year burden. This led to the perception that the FMGs were poorly trained and needed a brush up
and remedial courses to come up to par with US medical graduates.
Just to create a FMG section was itself summarily rejected by the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates by a majority that was convinced that the FMGs were up to no good and did not need any AMA support, let them hang out in their own ethnic enclaves. There was also the curious observation by some in the AMA that the creation of this FMG section would create “conflict within ethnic groups.” The implication is that the FMGs would fight amongst themselves for crumbs thrown their way by the AMA or the US Government.Those were indeed dark days for any FMG. Perseverance on the part of FMGs paid off. APPNA was a part of this to the extent that Dr. Busharat led the delegation of all Foreign Medical Graduates and this included Indian, Philipino, Korean, Chinese etc. The wonderful part of this country is that it is a participatory democracy. You ignore it at your own peril. This was a matter that was not to be let go easily. When another hearing of AMA House of Delegates was held in Louisiana, the whole FMG delegation was summarily thrown out of the assembly by the Sargeant at Arms. Dr. Busharat Ahmad is a witness to that dark day. But reason prevailed, and the tide turned in a massive way when “Stormy” ( Dr. Daniel Johnson president elect AMA at the time ) remarked that he has been watching from the sidelines that year after year the IMGs pleaded the case often to dead ears. He said that he was convinced of the validity of the IMGs cause. With that pronouncement, coming from one of their own, the tide turned.
Again to the credit of the system which recognizes merit, Dr. Busharat Ahmad ( Dow 1956) was the first chair of the IMG ( International Medical Graduate ) Section of the American Medical Association. At the Michigan State Medical Society Dr. Busharat Ahmad is often greeted as Mr. IMG.
For those who are keeping a Dow history, this page attached should be included lest the struggle of IMGS be forgotten.
- Shahid Yousuf
Dow 1975
FMG section
The House of Delegates of the
AMA in its June ’87 annual meeting
rejected the Board of Trustees’
recommendation for the creation of a
section for the Foreign Medical
Graduates. The measure failed by a
vote of 215 to 145.
Creation of the section had been
strongly supported by the
organizations of FMGs from Pakistan,
India and the Phillipines. The
proponents of the FMG section
proposal believed that creation of the
section would have given the FMGs a
voice within the mainstream of
American medicine, and increased
FMG participation and membership
in the AMA. To maintain the section,
the Board of Trustees had asked for
an annual commitment of $450,000.
The AMA’s Council on Long Range
Planning and Development had
endorsed the creation of the section
though the House reference
committee rejected the proposal
stating: FMGs are already being
mainstreamed into organized
medicine; the section may increase
conflict within ethnic groups;
evidence is lacking that FMG
membership would grow following
creation of the section; FMG issues
are already being discussed in the
House; and, formation of the section
would result in unfulfilled
expectations among many FMGs.
Currently the AMA already has
separate sections for hospital medical
staff, resident physicians, medical
students, and young physicians.
According to one estimate, at the
end of 1986 there were only 40,915
FMG members of the AMA out of a
total of 122,737 FMGs in the U.S.
Busharat Ahmad, M.D., AMA
delegate from Michigan, believed the
rejection of the section would result
News of members
- Ronald E. Trunksy, M.D. has
been voted “Teacher of the Year” at
Wayne State University School of
Medicine for the fifth time in 11
years.
in loss of FMG membership in the
AMA.
* * *
The American Medical News
reported that delegates to the APA’s
June ’87 Chicago annual meeting
rejected the proposal for equal testing
for Foreign Medical Graduates. If
passed, the resolutions would have
asked the National Board of Medical
Examiners and the Educational
Commission for Foreign Medical
Graduates (ECFMG) to reach an
agreement allowing the FMGs to take
national boards for ECFMG
certification. Proponents of the
proposal stated they were not asking
for any special favors, but only for a
chance to demonstrate their
competence in the same forum as
U.S. medical graduates.
Also considered at the APA’s
annual meeting by the FMG Caucus
was the possibility of a name change,
FMG being considered derogatory.
One suggestion was to change FMG
to IMG, International Medical
Graduate.
* * *
The new rules that went into effect
in May, 1986 made it necessary for
an FMG to score 75 in the FLEX in
order to be licensed. Another
requirement, of interest to those
FMGs who do not yet have a license,
requires them to complete three years
of postgraduate clinical training in a
program approved by the board in a
board-approved hospital or institution.
For graduates of U.S. medical schools
the postgraduate training requirement
is one year. Hearings on changes in
the licensure rules were scheduled for
August 19, 1987 in Lansing, after this
Newsletter’s press time.
- Shahid Yousuf, M.D.
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