Breaking into CDI as a Foreign Medical Graduate: Eight Strategies for Success

Posted May 17, 2024

News

By Brian Murphy

Foreign medical graduates (FMG) can make for wonderful CDI professionals—but breaking into the profession poses a unique challenge.

Many FMGs emigrate to the U.S. to pursue a career in medicine, but are faced with long odds (30,000 applications for 7000-8000 open residency slots, per one data point I found) and defer that dream.

CDI becomes a viable second option—today a first option, in increasing numbers. But getting a foothold in CDI without experience has its own obstacles for these professionals.

Following are some basic strategies for finding that elusive first job. I’m starting with more obvious strategies and build to suggestions perhaps less obvious.

If you haven’t already, move to the U.S., if you can. Some healthcare organizations might consider overseas CDI labor, but this is a significant minority. Ask if your employer will sponsor an H-1B visa.
Strengthen your resume. If you must, pay someone reputable to do this. At the top in your mission statement, emphasize that you are seeking a career in CDI (not medicine). In the skills section, highlight CDI adjacent activity. If you’ve been working as a physician overseas, or a research associate or a surgical assistant stateside, you’ve probably worked with medical records, reviewed lab results, etc.
Get on LinkedIn and create a good profile with a decent headshot. People want to see a face with a name.
Take the ACDIS CDI Apprenticeship, study, pass the exam, then put it on your resume. This shows a basic level of skills mastery and demonstrates commitment to the profession.
Buy an ACDIS Pocket Guide and read it cover-to-cover. Then read it again. This will introduce you to the basics of compliant query and the diagnoses you’ll be working to clarify in the medical record. You’ll also start picking up on the lingo of the profession, common acronyms, etc.
Sign up for ACDIS national membership and join the local chapter in your area. There are few better places to network.
Seek out the advice of others who have gone before you. Folks like Cris (Romerl) Gumayagay, CCDS, CCS, CDIP, CRCR, Chinedum Mogbo MBBS , MBA, MsHIM,RHIA,CCDS,CDIP, and Sulaiman Rasheed (see links to articles below) offer lived experience very different and likely far more helpful than my own theoretical knowledge.
Stay optimistic. You’ve got great clinical skills that translate to the profession. Know that many hundreds—likely thousands, given the growth of the CDI profession—of others have overcome these obstacles and succeeded. You can do it too.