Iraqi doctors come to U.S. for training

updated 1:02 p.m. ET Nov. 30, 2008

WASHINGTON - Being an ear, nose and throat specialist in Iraq doesn't feel so dangerous anymore for Kareem, one of 27 Iraqi medical doctors who spent the past month learning about health care in the United States.

Amid the violence in his country, he often traveled in larger groups, tried not to stay on the job too late into the night and varied the roads he took to work. The Iraqi government sometimes sent security guards to watch his home.

Because of security concerns, he is comfortable talking to a reporter only on the condition that his last name and hometown not be identified.

U.S. officials report that an estimated 8,000 Iraqi doctors stopped practicing medicine in the past five years because doctors became targets for murder and kidnapping in an effort to discredit the American-supported government.

Improved security and renewed hope
But recent months have brought improved security, a return of hundreds of doctors and a sense of hope.

"Our spirit is now changed. This is the point," Kareem said in an interview in Washington.

Kareem and a second Iraqi doctor, a psychiatrist named Hamood, recently spent three weeks at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit as part of a joint venture between the Health and Human Services Department and Iraq's Ministry of Health.

Both doctors described huge workloads at home. Kareem said he typically sees 50 to 70 patients a day in the outpatient setting and 10 more patients in the emergency room. Sinus infections, tonsillitis and cancer are conditions he regularly treats.

Hamood is the lone psychiatrist for a region with about 800,000 residents. Demand for his services has soared in recent years with many patients suffering from the fear and hopelessness that can accompany extreme trauma. Also, the stigma of seeking help for mental illness has waned, and that is driving demand.

"I think the open media has played a role in this," Hamood said.

Iraq needs thousands more doctors
U.S. health officials say Iraq probably needs about 100,000 doctors to meet the needs of its population, but has only 15,000 now.

The two Iraqi doctors emphasized that they found the practice of medicine is much the same in the two countries. Doctors in both countries ask patients the same questions. They record and chart a patient's symptoms the same way. They prescribe similar treatments. The main difference is the lack of high-tech equipment in Iraq. Iraqi doctors simply do not have access to the latest in imaging machines or robotic surgery.

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