Going overseas allows visitors to have adventures and experience new and exciting cultures.
Going overseas to attend medical school can be risky, sometimes making it tougher for students to find a residency spot in the U.S. when they finish their studies.
Robert Liddell, MD, experienced nothing but positives when he went abroad for medical school at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland from 1995 to 2000. But studying overseas wasn’t in his plans after he earned a bachelor’s in psychology at Middlebury College in Vermont.
“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do,” said Dr. Liddell, who’s on the ABR’s Angoff Committee for the Interventional Radiology Certifying Exam. “I thought medicine was something I wanted to do, but I also thought about something in a scientific field.”
Dr. Liddell’s journey to Ireland picked up speed when he worked in a research lab with an interventional radiologist at Stanford. The job firmed up his interest in attending medical school, so he decided to stay at Stanford and pursue a master’s in biological sciences.
“I hadn’t taken all the prerequisites to go to medical school,” he said. “I thought I would finish that year (working in the lab) at Stanford and then do a postbaccalaureate program to finish the things that I needed to do.”
He kept working at the lab and earned his master’s in 1995. While there, he met a clinical fellow from Ireland who was doing advanced training at Stanford.
“He said, ‘I know you’re applying to medical schools here in the States, but I had a number of American classmates who came from the U.S., went to medical school in Ireland, and went back to the U.S. and have done very well,’” Dr. Liddell said.
Facing a competitive field of potential medical school students in America, he took his colleague’s advice and applied overseas.
“I decided at that point, well, I’ll take this leap,” Dr. Liddell said. “I’ll go abroad and do the first year, and if I like it, maybe I’ll stay. If I don’t, I’ll apply to transfer or reapply to medical schools here in the U.S.”
He was accepted at the Royal College of Surgeons, where he found that other Americans had the same idea. Of the approximately 250 students in his class, 40 were from the U.S. He estimated that half of his colleagues came from overseas.
It made for an interesting mix. Foreign students usually are the elders in the cohort. In Ireland, high-achieving students can go directly from high school to medical school.
“I had a number of classmates who were pretty young,” Dr. Liddell said. “They were all 18, 19, 20 years old, whereas most of us (foreign students) were in our mid- to late-20s. Life was very different for them.”
It didn’t take long for Dr. Liddell to feel welcomed in Ireland. The week before he left, his mother gave him contact information for relatives who lived in Cork, which is 160 miles south of Dublin. He figured he would settle in and contact his kin in a couple of months. But the relatives couldn’t wait. As these were pre-cell phone days, he found a note on the department bulletin board asking him to contact his relatives.
“Within a month of landing in Dublin, I was down in Cork,” Dr. Liddell said. “They rolled out the red carpet. I met all the extended relatives, and they were saying, ‘When are you coming back? We’re coming to Dublin to see you.’”
He also quickly made friends on campus. Foreign students often stayed in a dorm for their first year, enabling Dr. Liddell to get to know his colleagues better. His love of soccer and golf helped him fit in well with Irish students. He and his American colleagues often faced off against their European counterparts in Ryder Cup-style matches.
The pub culture helped, too. Dublin has more than 750 of them.
“We would go out as a group together socially,” said Dr. Liddell. “There’s a pub around the corner from the medical school. On Fridays, we’d often have anatomy exams or things that we’d have to finish up and we’d say, ‘I’ll just meet you at the Swan.’ And you’d go and meet up with your friends, and then from there you’d have a plan to either go out to dinner or do whatever you’re going to do.”
In his third year, his comfort zone expanded when he married the girlfriend he had met at Stanford.
“She came to Dublin and joined me and got her MBA at Trinity (College),” he said. “Once she finished her MBA, because I had an Irish passport and we eventually got married, she could stay in Dublin and work without a visa or anything.”
Going to Europe for medical school wasn’t a hindrance to getting back to the U.S. Dr. Liddell landed a residency spot and performed a fellowship at Johns Hopkins, where he’s now an assistant professor of radiology and surgery and director of interventional radiology.
When studying overseas comes up in conversations, people are curious and impressed.
“When people see that I went to medical school abroad, they often will say, ‘Wow, going to medical school in Dublin must’ve been cool,’” he said. “Honestly, it was tremendous. It was fun and I learned a lot.”
The New Year has arrived, and our associate executive directors are poised to continue their task of improving the initial and continuing certification processes for candidates and diplomates. We recently asked the four part-time staff for their 2025 personal and professional goals.
Geoffrey Ibbott, PhD
Medical Physics
In the New Year, I’m looking forward to working with the newest Trustees and Governors at the board meeting in February. I’m also eager to meet the new members of the Medical Physics Initial Certification Advisory Committee in March. The MP Trustees and I are continuing to implement enhancements that will bring more structure to the review of oral exam questions and the evaluations of the examiners. I’m excited to help the Board develop the Diagnostic Radiology Oral Exam and implement changes that will spill over to the other disciplines and bring about further improvements. And I will take a friend’s advice to be more aware of my surroundings. Be attentive to my personal and professional relationships, take care of myself and those close to me, and embrace nature.
Mimi Newell, MD
Diagnostic Radiology
In 2025, I want to read more, scroll less, walk more, roost less, think more, talk less, cook more, eat less, appreciate more, gripe less, work hard, and relax with intention. I will see my kids and sweetest little grandkids as often as possible. And enjoy my tasks and colleagues at the ABR.
James Spies, MD
Interventional Radiology
For my part, in terms of ABR hopes, I would hope we continue on our path to better service for our candidates and diplomates, simplifying processes where possible, making obtaining and maintaining board certification administratively as painless as possible. Personally, I have hopes to exercise more and to lose 15 pounds, a hope that I renew each year!
Michael Yunes, MD
Radiation Oncology
With so many changes occurring in our country and the world, it is important that we all remember what makes us similar. We have families, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and even strangers whom we care for and worry about. We do not always know the demands or difficulties that each person has, but rest assured, we all have them. In 2025, I hope that we can embrace our differences while still acknowledging that they exist. I hope to engage in open communication with those with whom we may disagree and show empathy to those who have challenges that are not our own or even visible. This is true in both my personal and professional lives, where family members and patients may have a completely different perspective on topics of which I thought I had a clear understanding. I have taught my young adult children that we are always learning from others, if we listen. That is my goal: to listen and hear so that I can learn.
Annelise M. Silva, MD, EdM, is taking a year off between completing medical school and starting her residency. But this is far from a gap year.
After graduating from the Wright State University School of Medicine this past April 28, Dr. Silva started as national president of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) on May 1. With more than 30,000 members and 150 chapters, the AMSA is the largest and oldest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States.
“I wish I would have had a week of vacation,” she jokingly said of the quick turnaround. “I was finishing an away rotation, graduated that weekend, and started (at AMSA) a few days later. The flip from fully clinical to fully business has been a whirlwind.”
Her new duties started quickly. She was on calls to Vice President Harris’ office on her third day and, not long afterward, sitting in on sessions with the National Academy of Medicine and the AAMC.
“I had been in different leadership capacities before, especially in the nonprofit space, but never to this scale and this level,” Dr. Silva said. “It’s still taking me a second to get used to, but it’s an incredible opportunity to bring the voices of future physicians to the table.”
She started medical school in 2020 during the tumult of the COVID pandemic. Already grounded in educational equity work, Dr. Silva was looking for ways to not only build her work in health equity, but also to construct community during quarantine. That inspired her to join the local AMSA chapter at Wright State.
“I have a unique opportunity as a woman of color to use the intersecting lenses of my identity to look at things from a social justice perspective,” she said. “I think often about how we can build more access and communication to help drive patient care in that way.”
In her everyday duties, Dr. Silva oversees the organization’s board of trustees and its 75-member student government. She also works closely with a full-time staff of 20. Dr. Silva spent a year as AMSA’s president-elect before taking the reins this past spring. She will become its immediate past president next spring.
“We’re doing excellent work bringing the medical student voice and the premedical student voice into the spaces where they’re needed because we recognize that it is important for us to help support the healthcare system and society that we will inherit,” she said.
Dr. Silva has been preparing for this role for a while. She started in high school as a peer leadership counselor for Workshops for Youth and Families and then got involved in student organizational leadership in college at Arizona State University (ASU), designing events like multi-state research conferences. After college, Dr. Silva worked with Teach for America (TFA) in Massachusetts as an eighth-grade science teacher during and after earning her master’s in education at Boston University. During her preclinical years in medical school, she worked with fellow ASU and TFA alumnae to found and run the nonprofit Young and Empowered Women, which promotes the professional and personal development of women of color.
She also worked closely as an intern with an executive leadership coaching firm, working with clients like Twitter (X), Airbnb, and the Ford Foundation.
“It gave me the chance to learn what large-scale organizational leadership and change management looks like,” she said.
Her Filipino father and grandfather set the course for Dr. Silva’s career. They’re both diagnostic radiologists and were her first professional role models.
“Radiology has always been the way that medicine has been framed for me,” she said. “I grew up in reading rooms watching my dad interact with colleagues and consultants in the field.”
She’s based in Boston and has submitted her materials to numerous programs across the country with the hope of finding a program that will support her diverse interests in education, research, leadership, and policy. Dr. Silva is keeping her options open and would like to train and eventually work where she can serve people who share her background. She has applied to 80 programs for The Match and hopes to start an internship next July.
“One of the things that makes me most excited about radiology is seeing the push for diversity, equity, and inclusion from a systems perspective that radiologists can provide” she said.
Michele H. Johnson, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging and of neurosurgery at Yale University, met Dr. Silva through the American College of Radiology’s Pipeline Initiative for the Enrichment of Radiology (PIER) Internship. The program, offered to first-year medical students across the U.S., began through the Commission for Women and Diversity to give underrepresented minorities and women opportunities to explore radiology and engage in research. Scholars are paired with at least one preceptor in the student’s area of interest.
Dr. Silva teamed with Dr. Johnson, who was impressed by her younger colleague’s educational background and eagerness to learn more about radiology.
“She’s interested in teaching and sharing,” Dr. Johnson said. “Having a woman in this spot creates a role model for medical students. Annelise has amassed mentors and sponsors to help her along the way and she will carry that forward.”
Dr. Silva is also part of the task force for the American College of Radiology’s Communities Crushing Cancer initiative through the Radiology Health Equity Coalition. The event, which happens in October every year, matches her goals of raising awareness and providing healthcare opportunities for underserved populations. Working with dedicated people from her intended profession gives her even more inspiration to push forward.
“It all resonates with me, and that’s why I could not imagine being in another field,” she said. “I say this without a match quite yet, but radiology is my heart and my home for where I’d like to be in medicine and my community.”
This article originally appeared in the December issue of The Beam, the ABR’s e-newsletter.
