A feature article published in STAT News suggests that international medical graduates (IMGs) from schools like American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) “just might help solve an urgent physician shortage in California and beyond.”
Dr. Rina Seerke Teper (Class of 2015), a resident in the family medicine program at Riverside University Health System Medical Center, is one of those graduates. Her desire to become a doctor goes back to her childhood in the country of Georgia where she saw how her mother, a doctor, was able to heal and bring strength and comfort to patients during a time of civil war. Later, after moving to San Francisco, she volunteered in the San Francisco Free Clinic for the underserved and homeless. AUC provided her with a path to become a doctor.
In a state that will need an estimated 8,000 additional primary care doctors by 2030, IMG trained doctors are helping to alleviate the physician shortage—particularly in primary care. And with more than 480 graduates practicing in California, AUC is doing its part too.
