Blog: How physicians from travel ban countries affect the US healthcare workforce

Physicians from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — countries targeted in President Donald Trump's travel ban — play a significant role in U.S. healthcare, according to research by graduate students in economics at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both based in Cambridge, Mass.

The study, published in a Health Affairs blog, examined the effect of the travel ban on the U.S. physician workforce as well as patients. For the study, researchers used data from Doximity, an online physician network.

Here are seven things to know.

1. More than 7,000 physicians trained in Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen work in the U.S., according to researchers.

2. Physicians trained in these countries provide 14 million appointments annually in this nation.

3. Most of these physicians work in the country's Rust Belt and Appalachian areas.

4. Researchers said the physicians see many patients in Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, Indiana and Kentucky. Specifically, they found physicians trained in the six targeted countries provide 1.2 million appointments annually in Michigan; 880,000 in Ohio; 700,000 in Pennsylvania; and 210,000 in West Virginia.

5. The U.S. cities with the most physicians from countries included in the travel ban are Detroit, Toledo, Ohio, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio.

6. Researchers said physicians in the six countries targeted by the travel ban also provide 2.3 million patient visits in communities that are short on physicians.

"They work in these areas at the same rate as American-trained doctors. Our analysis suggests that physicians entering from these countries do not cluster preferentially into the major metropolitan areas, but rather are situated on the front lines of medical need," they added.

7. Physician practice areas most affected by the travel ban include cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology, pathology and internal medicine, according to the study.

"In remote areas, a single cardiologist or neurologist can be responsible for management of life-threatening conditions for hundreds of individuals. Given the shortages of specialists in these areas, their departure can have deleterious consequences for the management of these conditions," researchers said.

 

Copyright © 2024 Becker's Healthcare. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Linking and Reprinting Policy.

 

Featured Whitepapers

Featured Webinars