Immigrant Doctors Provide Better Care, According to a Study of 1.2 Million Hospitalizations

And they make up one-quarter of U.S. physicians.

by

and

Ashish K. Jha

by

and

Ashish K. Jha

February 03, 2017

On January 27 President Trump signed an executive order blocking citizens, including doctors, from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. This may have a measurable impact on the U.S. health care system. Many doctors may be blocked from returning to the U.S. after leaving the country. According to 2010 data, of approximately 850,000 doctors providing direct patient care in the U.S., 4,180 physicians were Iranian citizens and 3,412 physicians were Syrian citizens.

Yusuke Tsugawa is an assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles.
Anupam B. Jena is the Ruth L. Newhouse associate professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He received his bachelor’s degree from MIT and his MD/ PhD degrees from the University of Chicago.
Ashish K. Jha is the K. T. Li Professor of Health Policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. His major research interests lie in improving healthcare delivery systems, both in the U.S. and globally and how to use policies, data, and technology to make care safer, more effective, and more efficient.

Immigrant Doctors Provide Better Care, According to a Study of 1.2 Million Hospitalizations

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