Notes and references:

1. “In 1975, Trudeau became the first comic strip artist ever to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1989, 2004 and 2005.

Working with John and Faith Hubley, Trudeau wrote and co-directed the animated film, A Doonesbury Special, for NBC-TV in 1977. The film was nominated for an Academy Award and received the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.” http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/faqs/cv.html

2. U.S. Citizens Who Obtain Their Medical Degrees Abroad: An Overview, 1992-2006. Health Aff.  2009;28(1):226-233.  ©2009 Project HOPE.

Posted 03/09/2009. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/587050_print

3. “All graduates of the University of the Philippines-Manila (UPM) College of Medicine will soon be required to render a three-year return service to the country after graduating and obtaining a medical license. The new policy is expected to cover incoming medical students beginning academic year 2009-2010.

Under the policy, applicants to the College need to sign a contract as part of requirements for their admission to the college. The contract stipulates a return service, which may be in the form of public service, research, or private practice in any part of the Philippines, after obtaining a Philippine medical license. As part of the return service, a graduate may choose to undergo post-graduate residency and/or fellowship training in any government institution in Metro Manila or in any public or private institution outside Metro Manila.

The return service should be completed within five years from graduation.

Graduates who fail to comply will be required to pay a penalty, which will be double the value of the amount of state subsidy used for their education, with interest at legal rates.”

http://www.up.edu.ph/features.php?i=88

4. "The cost of obtaining a medical education has been spiraling upward for the past 20 years. Despite a lot of rhetoric in articles and at meetings of the Association of American Medical Colleges, nothing has happened to change the alarming pattern. The average tuition and fees at public medical schools during the 2003–2004 academic year amounted to $16,153, and the corresponding figure for private schools was $32,588.3 Adding $20,000 to $25,000 for living expenses, books, and equipment brings the estimated cost of four years of attendance to about $140,000 for public schools and $225,000 for private schools." – The New England Journal of Medicine. Volume 352:117-119. January 13, 2005. Number 2

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/352/2/117

5.  I am a foreign medical graduate. I was born in the Philippines and grew up in Iloilo City. After graduating from the University of the Philippines in Iloilo City, I went to UPCM and graduated in 1972. I interned at the Veterans’ Memorial Hospital in Quezon City. 1974-1978: radiology residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, TX. 1978: certified by the American Board of Radiology; became a naturalized U.S. citizen.  1983-1984: fellowship in MRI at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), the year clinical MRI was introduced at UCSF. I myself have not fulfilled any service to the UPCM in return for my medical education. I have a son and a daughter, neither of whom ever entertained the idea of going to medical school.

6. “As of June 30, 2009, through action of the AMA Council on Medical Education (CME Report 1-I-07), the Fifth Pathway will be discontinued. The Council will no longer support the Fifth Pathway as a mechanism for eligibility to enter the first year of ACGME-accredited graduate medical education programs. The AMA will continue to maintain record of former graduates of Fifth Pathway programs, but will cease to add records of individuals completing a year of supervised clinical education at an LCME-accredited medical school in the US after July 1, 2009. The last Fifth Pathway Program class to be supported is the January 2009 entering class, which ends December 2009.”

“[The Fifth Pathway is] an avenue by which students who have attended four years at a foreign medical school may complete their supervised clinical work at a U.S. medical school, become eligible for entry to U.S. residency training, and ultimately obtain a license to practice in the U.S.”

“Who can qualify for a Fifth Pathway? Only students who:

1. Graduated from an accredited American college or university;

2. Studied medicine at a medical school located outside the United States that is listed in World Health Organization's World Directory of Medical Schools and which requires a year or more of internship/social service (beyond the four years of medical school) before receiving a medical degree;

3. Completed all formal requirements of their foreign medical school except the final year(s) of clinical work/social service.

4. Students must be a  citizen, resident alien, or Canadian Citizen with a student visa.”

--American Medical Association

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/ama-councils/council-medical-education/topics/the-fifth-pathway-program.shtml