Pakistani Physicians and the Repatriation Equation

Abstract

In Pakistan, students who are accepted into medical school are congratulated — only half-jokingly — on three counts: that they will become doctors, that they will become certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties, and that they will soon be living in the United States.Pakistan has contributed approximately 10,000 international medical graduates (IMGs) to the United States,1 even though it faces a shortage of physicians.2 Take the case of Aga Khan University Medical College in Karachi. By 2004, it had produced 1100 graduates, 900 of whom had gone on to graduate medical training in the United States — . . .