Licenses

The American Medical Association issued its annual record on the licensing of physicians in the U. S. during 1923. The statistics show, for each state, the number and the qualifications of those admitted to the examinations. These figures show that in many states the public is well protected against illiterate and unqualified practitioners. In Massachusetts, Wyoming and District of Columbia, however, the laws providing for the regulation of the practice of medicine do not give the state licensing board the needed authority to protect citizens. In Arkansas and in Connecticut adequate authority is given, but it is divided between two or more licensing boards, so that there is no direct responsibility. In several other states the appropriation, either financially or in personnel, is not sufficient for carrying out the provisions of the law.

In Arkansas, during the last seven years, 176 graduates of low grade medical colleges secured licenses through the eclectic board, and of these 176, 166 were graduates of the Kansas City College of Medicine and Surgery. This was one of the two medical schools shown to have been involved in the diploma-mill (ring, exposed first by the St. Louis Star. The publicity and scandal aroused by this expose presumably had no serious influence on the eclectic board in Arkansas. This board licensed 36 graduates of low grade schools during 1923. Such states as reciprocate in the matter of licensure with Arkansas must now be on their guard.

Fewer Quacks. The recent scandal in medical licensure will, no doubt, diminish still further the number of physicians coming from low grade medical schools. Out of 35,497 physicians during the last six years, only 1,903 came from medical schools rated as low grade by the American Medical Association.

More Foreigners. The number of foreign physicians coming to the U.S. at this time is assuming the proportions of an avalanche. While only 67 applied for licensure in 1919, there were 371 in 1923, and this year the number is increasing monthly. Among these men are many undesirables, both from the educational and the moral standpoint. Says the A. M. A. Journal: "The country is already oversupplied with physicians, particularly in the large cities, where foreign physicians usually locate.

Heretofore the regulations governing the licensure of foreign physicians apparently have been applied more liberally than for graduates of our own medical schools. The time appears to have come when we must pay special attention to this problem. The examination should be in English; the rules in regard to official reports regarding credits and credentials should be applied to foreigners the same as to graduates of American medical schools, and, still more important, the identity of the applicant should be established and certified in as strict a manner as for graduates of American medical schools. A few states--New York, Louisiana, Florida, Illinois and Indiana--now require applicants from abroad to be citizens of the United States, and other states are contemplating similar action. Certainly citizenship, or at least a declaration of intention, should be required. The public needs protection against the incompetent or undesirable physician from abroad no less than against the medical impostor at home."