{"id":1467885,"date":"2026-05-05T04:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/?p=1467885"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:58:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T19:58:53","slug":"brain-drain-doctors-returning-home-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2026\/05\/05\/brain-drain-doctors-returning-home-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018brain drain\u2019 narrative about health professionals misses half of the story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About 10 years after a breast surgeon we interviewed returned to Dubai to practice, a colleague stopped her in a hospital corridor to tell her: \u201cIt\u2019s great \u2014 since you came back I no longer see those advanced cases of breast cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She had not stopped to notice. \u201cYou get on the wheel,\u201d she told us in an interview for our research. When you return to your home country after training abroad, you run your clinics, train your nurses, drive out to women\u2019s groups in the hinterlands to give talks, design educational videos that explain breast self-examination without showing a breast, because that is what the censors will pass. You argue to have the word \u201cbreast\u201d printed on your medical license; the authorities prefer \u201cchest.\u201d You establish a support group, then a drop-in center, likely the only cancer drop-in center in the Middle East. Somewhere in the middle of all that, you alter what late-stage breast cancer looks like in your country.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2026\/05\/05\/brain-drain-doctors-returning-home-systems\/?utm_campaign=api\">Read the rest\u2026<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>52 health professionals returned home to 43 countries. Here are the unexpected challenges and opportunities they faced. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":784,"featured_media":1468019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"stat_display_restriction_not_latest":false,"stat_featured_image_caption":"Hospital staff work at a field hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in April 2020.","stat_featured_image_nocrop":false,"stat_featured_image_focal_point":{"x":0.5,"y":0.5},"stat_article_wordmark_img":[],"stat_article_wordmark_url":"","stat_article_wordmark_height":"125px","stat_article_wordmark_enable":false,"stat_article_subheadline":"Returning to a home country to practice medicine brings surprising challenges, opportunities","stat_paywall_restrict":false,"footnotes":"","stat_article_enhanced_byline":"Chankseliani is professor in comparative and international education at the University of Oxford. ","stat_article_newsletter_id":"first_opinion","stat_article_header_color_scheme":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":43,"stat_paywall_move_flag":0},"categories":[43],"tags":[837,402,4823],"authors":[211288],"class_list":["post-1467885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-opinion","tag-global-health","tag-nurses","tag-physicians"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-1209882705-1024x649.jpg","coauthors":[{"avatar":"","display_name":"Maia Chankseliani","author_page":"","first_name":"","title":"","bio":"","email_address":"","email_url":"","twitter_url":"","twitter_handle":"","facebook_url":"","linkedin_url":"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/maiachankseliani\/","web_url":"","bluesky_url":"","bluesky_handle":""}],"stat_card_curation":{"image_id":1468019,"title":"","excerpt":"","video_id":0,"disable_topic_image_curation":false},"template_inline_styles":{"global_styles":":root{--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--square: 1;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--4-3: 4\/3;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--3-4: 3\/4;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--3-2: 3\/2;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--2-3: 2\/3;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--16-9: 16\/9;--wp--preset--aspect-ratio--9-16: 9\/16;--wp--preset--color--black: #000000;--wp--preset--color--cyan-bluish-gray: #abb8c3;--wp--preset--color--white: #FFFFFF;--wp--preset--color--pale-pink: #f78da7;--wp--preset--color--vivid-red: #cf2e2e;--wp--preset--color--luminous-vivid-orange: 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