[The dream of the Far West: French physicians in the United States].

At the end of 1996, there were 115,484 foreign medical graduates in the US. More than one quarter of the US physician workforce were FMGs, among them 973 came from a French medical school (nearly 0.6% of the French physician workforce). French-trained doctors in the US are mainly located in New York, New Jersey, California and Florida, i.e. in the urban areas. However, their membership to the medical learned societies is less frequent than their American colleagues. In general, their ways of practice evidence a lower level of professional status. Based on training costs, the loss for France, due to migration to the US of these 973 doctors could be estimated between 1.2 billion and 8.5 billion French Francs. One has to remind that, at the same time, France "imports" doctors trained in other countries for fulfilling medical posts in hospitals in remote areas. The process occurs in a context of oversupply of physicians in France. A large-scale study of international migration of physicians and nurses was undertaken under the aegis of the World Health Organization in the early 70's. It seems now of interest to re-examine again the issue.