Iraqi doctors come to U.S. for training

Spread out across the U.S.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said the visits came about because of a discussion he had with the Iraqi health minister, Dr. Salih al-Hasnawi, a psychiatrist.

"In the course of the last 15 years they've been cut off from any information in their areas of discipline. Even during the Saddam (Hussein) era, they were not able to communicate with people outside the country, and they feel like they're completely behind," Leavitt said. "What we need is for them to have access to people who are practicing at the state of the art. He asked if we could arrange shadowing experiences for physicians so they could learn and just form relationships."

The two Iraqi doctors said their time in the U.S. was devoted to observing patient care and attending lectures. They said it is hard to learn a great deal about medicine in such a short time, but they are excited about the contacts they made.

Doctors at Henry Ford are "ready to answer any questions or consultations," Kareem said.

The 27 Iraqi doctors were spread out throughout the U.S. Some went to Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, some to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, while others went to community health centers and Indian Health Service hospitals.

Helping the doctors feel at home
Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom, who helped set the visiting doctors' itinerary at Henry Ford, said the region's large Arab-American population helped ensure the doctors felt more at home.

"We tried to link them not only with physicians who could provide them with the clinical expertise they were looking for, but physicians who knew their language or were of Middle Eastern descent and could continue the dialogue long after they returned to their country," Wisdom said.

U.S. doctors were extremely curious about what it's like to practice in Iraq. Wisdom said she was struck by the reduced role of nurses there.

"In our country, nurses are a key backbone of the health care delivery system. They work very closely with physicians. However, in Iraq, the understanding is that nurses were the lowest ranked profession," Wisdom said.

The Iraqi doctors said they often got questions about security and pay. The pay was sure to startle their U.S. counterparts. The two said that doctors during Saddam Hussein's rule made as little as $3 a day, forcing many to have side practices. The pay now stands at about $1,600 a month, they said.

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