Dr Shirin Majdi Zadeh to train as Family Doctor in Baltimore

We are delighted to announce that Shirin, one of our Health Care Technicians, has been accepted into a family practice residency program in Baltimore.

Many of our patients will know Shirin from her work in the practice.

Shirin trained as an M.D. in Tehran, Iran, and moved to PEI with her husband in 2009 as part of the Provincial Nominee Program.  As an International Medical Graduate (IMG), Shirin was not licensed to practice medicine in Canada.   She therefore joined the Phoenix Medical Practice as a Health Care Technician while she was applying for a family practice training program in the U.S.   She has been in the U.S. attending interviews since December. 

We have just heard that she has been accepted into a Family Practice Residency Program in Baltimore.  She wanted to do her Family Practice residency program in Canada, but it is almost impossible to get on a Canadian training program.   It's a national disgrace that 75% of International Medical Graduates (IMGs) moving to Canada will never be able to practice medicine here.  It is hard enough for poorer countries to lose valuable resources such as highly-trained physicians, but for Canada to simply throw those physicians on the scrap heap is barbaric.

One problem IMGs face is that it takes them several years of taking expensive examinations in Canada before they can apply for a license, but when they apply they are told they have spent too long away from clinical work to be considered.  Our Health Care Technician program is designed to overcome that problem: IMGs are able to be productive working in a clinical environment by carrying out clinical tasks that do not require a medical license.   Shirin reports that her interviewers showed a lot of interest in her experience working in our modern collaborative medical practice.   This helped her successfully fight off stiff competition for the training post.

We wish Shirin and her husband all the best in their move, and we would like to thank her from all of the staff and patients for her hard work and dedication during her time with the Phoenix Medical Practice.