Non-US-born doctors make up nearly half of America’s internal medicine workforce

Physicians born outside the United States account for close to half of the internal medicine workforce in the US and shoulder a disproportionate share of care for underserved patient populations, according to a cross-sectional study published in JAMA.

The analysis found that non-US-born physicians – a group spanning both US medical graduates (USMGs) and international medical graduates (IMGs) – represent almost 50% of internists practising nationally. Crucially, their distribution across the health system is uneven: these doctors are over-represented in settings serving patients who face the greatest barriers to access.

The finding underscores the extent to which the US internal medicine workforce depends on physicians who were born abroad, whether they subsequently trained in American medical schools or entered the system as international graduates. It also points to a potential vulnerability in coverage for underserved communities, where any contraction in the pipeline of non-US-born physicians would likely be felt first.

The corresponding author is Giacomo Meille, PhD, of the American Board of Internal Medicine in Philadelphia.

The full study is available here: Non–US-born physicians in the US internal medicine workforce