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Updated 15 hours ago

President Trump's executive order suspending immigration from seven countries will have a “detrimental effect” on the nation's graduate medical education and the health care system as a whole, two UPMC physicians wrote this week in a major medical journal.

Drs. Ahmad Masri and Mourad Senussi, fellows in UPMC's cardiovascular fellowship training program, examined available data on doctors and students from some of the banned countries, publishing the results Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Trump's order bars U.S. entry of people from the Muslim-majority countries of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

“By doing these blanket orders, what you effectively do is you block out a lot of really good, hard-working physicians who fill positions that otherwise would be unfilled,” Senussi, of Libya, said in an interview. Masri graduated from a university in Jordan.

The Trump administration rejected the doctors' analysis.

“That's silly, it's for 90 days,” a White House spokesman told the Trib in an email, referring to the order's duration.

Data on doctors' origin countries are not publicly available, but Senussi and Masri pulled statistics from a 2014 report on applicants to U.S. medical residency programs. Medical school graduates receive training in the programs, which are often highly competitive, in specialties such as cardiology or neurology.

In 2013, 753 applicants who applied to U.S. residency programs were born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan or Syria, according to the paper. Of those, 299 entered a U.S.-based program, the paper states.

Senussi said he has an H-1 visa, which employers sponsor, and is applying for a green card.

“I don't really know what position I'm in right now,” he said. “I'm hoping that there will be more clarity in the upcoming days or weeks. Unfortunately, it looks like there may not be.”

Neither his father, a retired professor in Libya, nor anyone else in his family can visit him, he said.

Getting into a U.S.-based residency program is difficult, usually requiring top-performing medical school graduates to spend at least two years preparing, Senussi said.

“The process to get here is very, very tough,” he said. “You're talking about cherry-picking the best medical students and physicians from medical schools abroad.”

Nearly a quarter of U.S. doctors in 2015 had graduated from international medical schools, according to the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.

In 2016, 7,460 international medical graduates who were not U.S. citizens applied for residency, making up 21 percent of all residency applicants, according to the paper.

Graduates of foreign medical schools have to pass national and state licensing exams before training or practicing in America, according to the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.

Many foreign graduates start their careers in underserved rural areas, filling needed roles, he said.

Senussi's paper cites a concern that the immigration order could be extended to other Muslim-majority countries. In 2013, 2,101 graduate medical school students applied to U.S. residencies from 11 Muslim-majority countries, according to the paper, and 40 percent entered U.S.-based programs.

Most medical graduates attend residencies with J-1 visas. Pennsylvania had 500 physicians training with J-1 visas in the 2014-15 academic year, making it the state with the seventh-highest number of the visas, according to Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates data.

Medical residents are certified physicians and treat patients.

Senussi said he doesn't bring up the immigration order with patients, but sometimes they start discussions about it.

“There's a lot of finger-pointing on both sides,” he said, “but the one thing they all agree on is they want to keep their doctors.”

Wes Venteicher is a Tribune-Review staff writer.

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