Clearly context makes a difference (e.g., you live in the Caribbean), so feel free to add details. We just noticed that our OBGYN went to medical school at Ross University in Dominica. He’s an ostensibly typical American (whatever that means) from Staten Island, now living and practicing just outside the Catskills. As far as we know, neither he nor his wife (we’ve met) are Dominican.
This has given us a something of a pause, but not knowing much about the medical school system we’re not sure whether this is a small, quirky detail or a neon warning sign.
Would you care?
Our Doctor did.
He is the best Doctor we’ve ever had and have dealt. ( WE have Buttloads of experience with a wide range of Doctors due to parental issues and having kids.)
We refer to it as The Univesity of Guadala-Harvard.
Not really. I’ve been told from people who know medical school better than I do that it’s so difficult to get a residency coming from a Caribbean school that someone who can do that is probably near the top of their class. Since Caribbean graduates take the same boards as American school grads, their knowledge base is going to be the same. The only thing you can infer from your doctor’s Caribbean diploma is that most likely he had some problem getting into a US medical school, which could be anything. Maybe he failed calculus or didn’t do enough volunteer work. It doesn’t really matter.
I have to admit I would be a little leery about it, if I knew. But I probably wouldn’t - I don’t know where my dentist and GP went, for instance, but I’m satisfied with their work.
My cousin, now a surgeon, went to Ross. It is incredibly difficult to get into medical school in this country and frankly I come from a rather overrepresented minority for medicine (South Asian) so I most definitely agree with the principal that a lot of talented people end up in the Caribbean and osteopathy programs etc…
However, in the spirit of complete honesty, I do choose physicians with good academic backgrounds AND who have good bedside manner and I check to see where they did their residency. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. I remember in the late 90s my parents got me an appointment with some preeminent derm from Harvard and he told me he could do nothing for me and that I was going to be a leper forever (so I’m paraphrasing a little…but trust me, the guy was a dick). I went back to my pleasant derm with her degree from Tufts (whose practice has since become so ridiculously successful that it takes months to get appointments with her…and I’m chalking 99% of that up to the fact that she doesn’t make you feel like a leper) who cleared up the problem with a Retin-A prescription and a referral to an allergist. F*cking creep. I still remember him.
As a physician myself, I can tell you that where they did their RESIDENCY will tell you more about the quality of a doctor, not where they went to med school. Unfortunately, it’s much harder for people outside of the biz to know the quality of a residency program (sometimes Ivy League residencies are only Ivy League in name and they don’t offer much quality to their residents, while residencies from no-name places provide excellent teaching to their residents…plus reputations can rise and fall over the years as the leadership of a program changes).
Ross is one of the schools that caters specifically to Americans who can’t get into an American med school. However, all that really tells you is that he probably had problems in college (undergraduate). It’s definitely possible that whatever that issue was has nothing to do with how good of a doctor he is. Sometimes smart and talented people can’t get into American med schools because of little things like having goofed off too much in their first few years of college until they matured.
If you like this doc and feel he knows what he’s doing, it’s not something you should worry about.
My dad is a part-time instructor at a medical school in the Caymans, and I’ve let one of his students treat me.
I don’t know. Is he offering to do liposuction on you for $500… all in the comfort of your own home?
I agree with what’s been said - if they are practicing in the US, they’ve had to complete a US residency and pass US licensing exams.
That being said - working with a Caribbean resident as a US med student can be tough. I ran into some chick with the biggest chip on her shoulder…very unpleasant. She was one of those people who were perpetually angry at everything. Ugh.