Some patients are still wary of foreign medical doctors. With the current physician shortage, this physician says get over it:

“Make sure he speaks English,” she said, adding, “and knows what he’s doing.”

She was an acquaintance who asked me to find her a doctor — one “without a funny name. You know what I mean?”

I did indeed. Worried she’d get a second-rate physician, she wanted a home-grown, presumably American- born and American-trained doctor — not a “foreigner” (formally known as an “International Medical Graduate”). What she didn’t know is that this request is not only harder to fill now than ever before, but also largely unnecessary.