Physician shortage in the U.S. & the importance of International Medical Graduates

Dr. William W. Pinsky, MD, President and CEO of the ECFMG (Educational Commission For Foreign Medical Graduates), and Dr. Beatriz Wills, an international medical graduate (IMG) from Bogota, Columbia, discuss the current physician shortage along with the need for and importance of international IMGs in the U.S.

William W. Pinsky, M.D., is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and Chair of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), ECFMG’s nonprofit foundation. Prior to joining ECFMG in mid-2016, Dr. Pinsky was Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer of Ochsner Health System (OHS). He also served as Executive Vice President for Ochsner International and Professor and Head at the Ochsner Clinical School, a U.S. partner of The University of Queensland School of Medicine in Australia. Dr. Pinsky retains an Honorary Professor title from the University of Queensland. Dr. Pinsky graduated from Saint Louis University School of Medicine, and trained at Baylor College of Medicine and at Texas Children’s Hospital. Before joining OHS, Dr. Pinsky held a number of senior academic and executive roles at Wayne State University School of Medicine (Associate Dean) in Detroit, and at the Detroit Medical Center. Dr. Pinsky has served in recent years on the Boards of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, and the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers where he also served as President. He is the founder of Racing For Kids®, a 501(c)(3) foundation that uses professional motorsports to promote the health care needs of children and children’s hospitals. Dr. Pinsky is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Cardiology, and the American College of Chest Physicians.

Beatriz Wills, M.D., has a fellowship in hematology-oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She recently completed a third-year internal medicine residency in the Osler Internal Medicine Residency Program at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, Dr. Wills is studying on a J-1 visa sponsored by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG).

Dr. Wills completed medical school at Los Andes University in Colombia. Prior to her residency at Osler, she completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at Johns Hopkins and authored several journal publications.Her initial interest in medicine was influenced by her family, which includes several doctors. She is passionate about immunotherapy, bone marrow transplants and lung cancer, and aspires to become a world leader in oncology and medical education.