New Jersey has a bill pending to join the compact. But states have shown more resistance to easing rules for doctors. The reason we have state licensure schemes in the first place is to assure our citizens that the person treating them is qualified. The Federation of State Medical Boards is considering ways to make doctors' credentials more easily transferable between states, said the group's president, Dale Austin. In the meantime, state licensing rules aren't stopping doctors from crossing national boundaries.
Different doctors attend, based on the type of patients they're examining.
One week it was a boy whose brain is too large for his skull, said Frank Brady, chairman of Medical Missions for Children, a non-profit group based at St. Joseph's that is sponsoring the telemedicine effort. Another time, doctors examined three critically ill newborns. And, one recent day, it was Didier Avila and seven other Panamanian children who are missing ears. All of the children are under the care of the country's main children's hospital, Hospital del Nino. St. Joseph's physicians primarily serve as consultants, offering advice to their peers in Panama.