title: International recruitment of allied health professionals to the United States: piecing together the picture with imperfect data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Research on the international recruitment of health professionals to the U.S. has focused almost exclusively on physicians and nurses; we are aware of no research on the migration of allied health professionals.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We examined the strengths and weaknesses of various public and private data sources on foreign-educated allied health professions in the U.S. and patched together a picture of these migrants. We focus on pharmacists, physical therapists (PTs), occupational therapists (OTs), speech language pathologists (SLPs), and medical and clinical laboratory technicians (lab techs).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on the American Community Survey, we found that 12% of PTs, 12% of lab techs, 8% of pharmacists, 4% of OTs, and 3% of SLPs are foreign-born and entered the U.S. at age 21 or older. Among foreign-born PTs, about half remain as non-citizens, suggesting the highest proportion of recent arrivals among the five professions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As Congress debates comprehensive immigration reform, one of the much need changes to the system is better immigration data, disaggregated by occupation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy, The George Washington University, 2121 K Street NW, Ste 210, Washington, DC 20037, USA. Tel 202-994-4295. ppittman@gwu.edu.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pittman
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Frogner
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bass
authors.forename: Courtney
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dunham
mesh_terms: D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D002568:Certification / Q000592:standards; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000639:trends; D005551:Foreign Professional Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D006801:Humans; D008004:Licensure / Q000592:standards; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012107:Research Design; D014481:United States