Medical care
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The authors examined whether international medical graduates (IMGs) constitute a greater percentage of the US physician workforce in rural underserved areas than in rural non-underserved areas. Research findings could help policymakers determine whether the role of international medical graduates in compensating for local physician shortages counterbalances international medical graduates' potential for exacerbating a national oversupply. ⋯ International medical graduates do help reduce rural physician shortages, but interstate variation points to the role of state policies in influencing international medical graduates' distribution in rural, underserved areas. Such variation also can come about from many different causes, so there is a need for further research to determine why international medical graduates help compensate for physician shortages more so in some states than in others.