For an Indian American appointed to a top US medical body, making foreign trained doctors equal in status and achievement to their American counterparts is a priority.

S "Jay" Jayasankar was last month made head of the International Medical Graduates (IMG) section of the powerful American Medical Association (AMA), vowing to break the glass ceiling for IMGs.

"Indian physicians are generally well liked by patients," Jayasankar said in an interview. "Yet there is not a general recognition that we are equal to local graduates and there are many glass ceilings.

"We need more IMGs in leadership to really change this." Jayasankar estimates there are some 200,000 IMGs around the US.

He notes the work done by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) in winning several battles, including the creation of the IMG section.

"The AAPI was created for IMG advocacy. AAPI leaders have been active in IMG issues at the state and AMA level."

"IMGs are nearly a quarter of all physicians in the US and one in five IMGs is from India. That gives the AMA - IMG section and the AAPI a lot of clout, which I will use to level the playing field and get the recognition and respect we IMGs deserve.

"IMGs have to jump through many hoops to start training in the US There is a reason. The public has to be protected and assured that IMGs meet the same standards as USMGs (medical graduates in the US).

"The real problem is that after they have proved themselves equal, they are asked to jump through ever higher and tighter hoops over and over again for licence or if they move out of state. We shall not tolerate that. We must get parity," Jayasankar asserted.

And currently, the AMA works on the assessment that there is an oversupply of physicians, whereas, says Jayasankar, "the new policy is expected to reflect the reality of current or imminent shortages."

Jayasankar says they have already been successful in getting the leadership at the ECFMG (Educational Council for Foreign Medical Graduates) and the FSMB (Federation of State Medical Boards) to work with each other to avoid redundancy in credentialing and primary source verification.

One of IMG's recent achievements, according to Jaysankar, is the very establishment of IMG last year as a permanent part of the AMA.

"And the AMA has created policy for the first time supporting J1 Visa waiver; The physician workforce policy review is the result of our section's request; and the AMA-IMG Section and the state of Wisconsin were the ones who started, over a year and a half ago, the current tort reform advocacy initiative of the AMA."

Currently, the AMA has only 40,000 members, Jayasankar points out. The IMG's existence would mean many more physicians joining the premier physicians' body.

His priorities include centralised credentialing and avoiding duplication of Primary Source Verification for licensure; parity with US medical graduates for primary licensure and for reciprocity; re-evaluating the US physician workforce, parity with American graduates when taking the Clinical Skills Assessment Exam; dealing with immigration issues in the wake of 9/11; and working with the AMA board of trustees to develop leadership opportunities in organised medicine for foreign graduates.

Jayasankar, an orthopaedic surgeon from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, is a delegate from the Massachusetts Medical Society to the AMA's policymaking body, the House of Delegates.