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Journeys User4May 17, 2024May 17, 2024Clinical Training Experience, Cross-cultural Experience, Host Institution, Well-being GrantsIndia, Ohio, Pediatric Nephrology, Pediatrics, PGY5, Well-being

Alone We Survive, Together We Thrive: International Medical Graduate Empowerment Initiative

By Dr. Shruthi Mohan

Recipient of the 2023 Grant Opportunity for J-1 Physicians: Well-being Projects Supporting Foreign National Physicians

I am Dr. Shruthi Mohan, a PGY-5 from India specializing in pediatric nephrology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. When I first walked through the doors of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital as a pediatric resident four years ago, the moment was filled with euphoria. Confident in my prior residency training from a prestigious institute in India, I was ready to embrace new training, worlds away from home, with enthusiasm. However, the initial euphoria quickly gave way to the daunting realities of visa processes and adapting to a new culture, lifestyle, and healthcare system in a new city. It was a steep learning curve, navigating a system that was entirely foreign to me, with minimal guidance.

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Journeys User4August 23, 2023August 22, 2023Host Institution, My Story, Post J-1 Experience, Words of WisdomAlumni, Anesthesiology, India, Ohio, Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiology

Embracing Challenges: From IMG to Program Director

By Dr. Tanaya Sparkle

In 2010, as a young and ambitious medical student, I found myself at a crossroads in my career; I was considering leaving my home country of India to pursue advanced medical training in anesthesiology in the United States. A decade later, in 2020, I was presented with a remarkable opportunity to serve as the program director of the anesthesiology residency training program at The University of Toledo. My passion for anesthesiology and my experience as an international medical graduate (IMG) led me to take this role supporting aspiring physician IMGs, like I once was.

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Journeys User4June 9, 2021May 27, 2021Cross-cultural Experience, My StoryCanada, COVID-19, Emergency Medicine, Ohio, PGY1

Navigating the Slopes of Intern Year

By Dr. E Chin Mak

I’m sitting in my residency library on a gloomy spring afternoon during my trauma surgery rotation. I stare out the window at the shedding cherry blossom trees, and I reflect on how the last ten months flew by. As I’m waiting for a trauma alert to be paged out, another chest tube, another bedside thoracotomy, I think back to where I was exactly one year ago today. I was packing up my bags in Ireland, prepared to move across the pond to a new country, ready for my first full-time clinical training experience and to start a new life. Little did I know how much I would learn in medicine, and in life.

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Journeys User4May 25, 2021May 21, 2021My Story, Post J-1 ExperienceAlumni, Lebanon, Neurocritical Care, Ohio

Becoming the First Neurointensivist in My Country

By Dr. Toufic Chaaban

It was 2:00 AM at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport, moments before a long trip to the United States. I was drinking coffee and trying desperately to distract myself. At the time, I was 30 years old, recently engaged, and a fresh graduate in pulmonary and critical care. I was on my way to begin a U.S. graduate medical education program on a J-1 visa for subspecialty training in neurocritical care.

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Journeys User4August 25, 2020September 8, 2021Cross-cultural Experience, My StoryCOVID-19, Family Medicine, Ohio, PGY4, Preventative Medicine, Saudi Arabia

Engineering Medicine Inside Out

By Dr. Wail Yar

I grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, thousands of miles away in the Middle East. I went to high school with a dream that I would become a petroleum engineer. I never thought that I would be a physician; I was scared from seeing blood, and I was afraid to touch a patient. When I graduated from high school, I applied to the best scholarship program in the country, and I got accepted to study petroleum engineering abroad. At the same time, I applied to King Abdulaziz University College of Medicine in Saudi Arabia, because it is one of the best schools in the country. I applied, not because I was forced to do so by my family, but I did it to prove that I could be a doctor, although at that time I didn’t want to be one.

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