"Desperate Housewives" Insults Filipino Medical Graduates

Teri Hatcher's character on "Desperate Housewives", Susan, after being shocked at a physician's diagnosis of Menopause says - "OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas? Just to make sure they aren't, like, from some med school in the Philippines ?"

This was in pretty bad taste, you would agree. Obviously drew a lot of angry phone calls and an apology from the ABC studios.

As per the 2006 AMA IMG workforce discussion paper [pdf] , International Medical Graduates make up abut 25% of the physician workforce in America. Indians make up the highest percentage at about 24% of all IMG-physicians and Philippines comes next with as many as 10 to 11% of those physicians.

The comment only reflects ignorance on the American laymans part about medical education abroad in countries where IMGs come from, which may not always be with the latest technological aids, but certainly rich in clinical diagnostic and management experiences. Furthermore IMGs in America don't just arrive in tankers or cargo planes and start practicing - they have to undergo the same residency training as the American Medical Graduate do and in fact need to have higher than American national average board scores to enter residencies.

Here's a good article by a Physician recruiter in US, who says', "Don't worry if your physician wasn't born in the US", in response to a friend who wanted a doctor "without a funny name" :-)


Read the news here

And check out this Youtube Clip to judge for yourselves:








Wonder if ABC is smiling a bit after the initial embarrassment - coz' any publicity is good publicity right ?

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Is ur mindset flexible enough to ?