IMG Anesthesiologists planning Direct Fellowships: Good News...

Thanks to a pilot program designed pretty much on the same lines as the alternate pathway for board certification for Non-US trained Radiologists that I blogged about before, IMG anesthesiologists (i.e. IMGs with MDs in Anesthesiology in a Non-US country ) too can now qualify for American Board certification in Anesthesiology after Direct fellowships in US without having to do a residency again ...

So ! the new part is not really about direct fellowships without residency - ( IMG anesthesiologists have been doing than since years now ) - but what's new is the fact that after a fellowship, there is no need to do a residency again to qualify for Board certification.

To revise, to get a complete access to the US physician job market, you first need board certification in your primary specialty - but before that you need to be 'board eligible'. Most American boards need completion of a ACGME certified residency to be board eligible, but because of short supply and increasing fellowship branches, a few boards are relaxing some rules to take advantage of foreign-trained qualified residency-trained docs.

Here's what the 2007 newsletter of the American Board of Anesthesiology says:

" The ABA has approved a seven-year pilot program that would allow international medical graduates, certified by the national anesthesiology organization in the country where they trained in the specialty and practicing anesthesiology in the United States, to qualify for entrance into the ABA examination system for initial certification in the specialty at most once via an alternate entry path.

- International medical graduates interested in using the alternate entry path must complete a total of four years of prospectively approved, continuous experience in one anesthesiology department that commences on or after July 1, 2007.

- At the time the anesthesiology department enrolls the international medical graduate with the ABA, the department must have an ACGME-accredited anesthesiology residency or fellowship training program that has continued full accreditation and a review cycle of three years or more

- An anesthesiology department can have no more than two international medical graduates enrolled in the pilot program at one time.

- the department chair must submit to the ABA a four-year plan, co-signed by the physician, for prospective approval by the ABA Credentials Committee. This experience will consist of four years of resident or fellowship training, research, faculty experience or combination thereof, in the same institution in which the anesthesiology program resides. "

Pretty much like the Alternate pathway designed by the American Board of Radiology eh...

Check out some more details here

American Board of Anesthesiology


So good luck fellas - and maybe you too would make it to the news for buying million dollar homes like this IMG anesthesiologist ;-). Not too long ago, the American Board of Anesthesiology did allow IMG anesthesiologists to get board certified with direct fellowships without residency, but stopped it for some reason.


Also Read:

- Nurse Anesthetists: Nurses who earn more than some docs in U.S.
- Anesthesiologist Incomes in the USA
- Average Malpractice Rates for U.S Anesthesiologists in 2007