New Mainers Resource Center, Portland Adult Education and the Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership have come together to host a remote conference: Fulfilling Potential: Foreign Trained Physicians – A Pathway Forward for Maine on January 19^th, from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm. 

As Maine looks to address its healthcare workforce shortages, one resource it may be able to look to are the foreign trained physicians who are living in Maine. These are doctors who have gone to medical school, been licensed and have years of practice in their home country. These are doctors who have immigrated to and are living in Maine, many of whom are here as refugees and asylum seekers. For a range of issues, the vast majority are not able to make it through the many steps in the licensing process to get to the point where they are even able to apply to the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine. This is not a unique situation to Maine but is a national problem.

“During the past couple of years, several states from across the country have begun to look at this issue. This year seems like the opportune time for Maine to also explore the steps that we as a state can take to help these physicians use the fullest potential of knowledge and skills,” explains Sally Sutton, Program Coordinator for the New Mainers Resource Center at Portland Adult Education, which is part of the Portland Public Schools. “While we can learn a great deal from these other states, it is also important that we take advantage of what we can learn from the doctors who are living in Maine and come together to craft a solution for our state.”

The agenda for this conference will include leaders from around the country who will share their insights and experiences about how to address this issue, as well as explore options for Maine. It will also include sessions with Maine’s foreign trained doctors about their experiences and the challenges they face as they try to enter the healthcare field in Maine and put their training and experience as a doctor to work.

“We are very pleased to be coordinating this session with the New Mainers Resource Center,” states Judiann Ferretti Smith, Executive Director, Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership. “The conference is the culmination of work we have done during the past year at our 2022 Hanley Center Forum – Creating a Healthy Sustainable Healthcare Workforce – where we highlighted the potential these physicians provide to Maine. It is an important conversation that perfectly aligns with our Hanley values of collaboration, innovation, inclusion, and courage and we are honored to play a role.”

Registration for the event is free and remains open until the end of the day on January 18^th.  Register here: Fulfilling Potential: Foreign Trained Physicians - A Pathway Forward for Maine.

For more information contact:

Sally Sutton, Program Coordinator, New Mainers Resource Center, Portland Adult Education,suttos@portlandschools.org, or Judiann Ferretti Smith, Executive Director, Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership, judiannsmith@hanleyleadership.org