LICENSING OF FOREIGN MEDICAL GRADUATES IN THE UNITED STATES

The licensing of graduates of European and other foreign medical schools, except those in Canada, has been a matter of grave concern to examining boards in a majority of our states for the last ten or a dozen years. Prior to that time, the number of graduates of foreign schools seeking settlement in this country was small, and often the candidates were of such unusual attainment that their coming here presented little question. However, coincidental with political changes in central Europe during the thirties, a substantial number of emigre physicians sought refuge in America, and licensing boards were faced with a new and complicated problem. At about the same time many American students went to Europe for medical education and returned here to practice. The Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association has reported that from 1930 through 1947, 14,520 graduates of foreign schools, not including Canadian, were