%0 Journal Article
%T The migration of physicians from sub-Saharan Africa to the United States of America: measures of the African brain drain
%A Amy Hagopian
%A Matthew J Thompson
%A Meredith Fordyce
%A Karin E Johnson
%A L Gary Hart
%J Human Resources for Health
%D 2004
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1478-4491-2-17
%X We used the American Medical Association 2002 Masterfile to identify and describe physicians who received their medical training in sub-Saharan Africa and are currently practicing in the USA.More than 23% of America's 771 491 physicians received their medical training outside the USA, the majority (64%) in low-income or lower middle-income countries. A total of 5334 physicians from sub-Saharan Africa are in that group, a number that represents more than 6% of the physicians practicing in sub-Saharan Africa now. Nearly 86% of these Africans practicing in the USA originate from only three countries: Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana. Furthermore, 79% were trained at only 10 medical schools.Physician migration from poor countries to rich ones contributes to worldwide health workforce imbalances that may be detrimental to the health systems of source countries. The migration of over 5000 doctors from sub-Saharan Africa to the USA has had a significantly negative effect on the doctor-to-population ratio of Africa. The finding that the bulk of migration occurs from only a few countries and medical schools suggests policy interventions in only a few locations could be effective in stemming the brain drain.Doctors migrate from developing countries to wealthier countries in order to further their careers, or improve their economic or social situation. The World Health Organization (WHO) has long recognized that migration of health personnel from developing to developed countries creates unfortunate imbalances in the global health workforce [1].America's physician workforce has been significantly infused with foreign-trained international medical graduates (IMGs) since World War II. The purpose of this paper is to describe a sub-population of IMGs in the USA, those who have trained in one of the 47 African subcontinent nations.African governments have been very clear about their objections to the wholesale migration of their physicians to rich countries. In 1996, South Africa's
%U http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/2/1/17