Quite a few of my (and my family) drs. are foreign (Indian/Italian/Iranian/Chinese) trained, definitely non-ivy MDs. Great doctors with open and holistic (love it when referring to medicine!) minds. I never care where they go to Medical school, least of all, UG.
Since all US medical schools and all US medical residencies are effectively elite academically, wouldn’t other factors be more important than whatever small differences there are between US medical schools and US medical residencies of a given specialty?
I too look for their undergrad, medical school, residency and hospital affiliations. If I can find a Johns Hopkins or Stanford graduate then I do prefer him over graduates of U of Pikeville.
My admin even avoids foreign medical graduates unless they did their residency at a top US medical school affiliated hospital. I thought she is racist until I found out she prefers locally educated Asian-American doctors over URMs and whites because admission criteria is different for everyone.
I just look at residency and fellowship. There is a big difference among the various residencies. I want someone who was trained at a large academic medical center where patients go when nobody else can figure out their diagnosis. I want the doctor who has been exposed to the widest variety of illnesses and conditions, has seen the rare diagnosis, and has studied under some of the best minds in the field.
I have an orphan variety of leukemia. When I was diagnosed, they sent me to a perfectly competent hem-onc. When I asked him how many patients he’d ever seen with my disease, he said four. I found another doc via a leukemia list serve who had taught/done clinical research at JHU, participated in trials for the breakthrough med, and who was now head of the cancer center at another hospital. I’ve seen her for sixteen years.
My cardiologist and oncocardiologist (also women) attended med school overseas, did residencies at good hospitals in the US, and (the hard part) also have treated many cardiac patients with cancer.
Can’t imagine these docs aren’t making significant $, though likely from multiple sources.
Residencies can be a fair proxy for how well one did in med school, but there are many fine hospitals not necessarily on the radar that specialize in certain areas. If I ever need the doc for my disease, I’m on a plane to Oregon.
“I believe it is a trait that you are born with, not learnable.”
Oh nonsense.
Like any skill, social skills can be learnt and improved. Yes, some people are more natural at it, and some people have the ability to be exceptional (just like, say, controlling a soccer ball with your feet), but unless you’re on the spectrum, it’s lazy nonsense to say that no one can improve their social skills.
“Oh, c’mon! It was worse decades ago. If you were a man who came from a certain background, all you had to do was have your father pick up the phone.”
Indeed. I still remember a business case put out by HBS that simply sounded unreal to me (reading about this case set in the '70’s soon after the turn of the millennium).
In that case, this HBS grad got offered a job to run a plant as a manager and was offered by the boss to take over after he retired despite zero relevant experience simply because he was a Harvard guy and the boss knew his dad. The main subject was pretty emo and had all sorts of angst about the meaning of life, whether he would really be happy running a factory, so asked to take a leave. And the boss was completely understanding, telling him to take as much time as he needed to find himself.
I went to another M7 b-school and I can assure you that none of my friends or I experienced anything like that. Finding a job was our full-time job and once we landed a “good” gig, it was hit-the-ground-running-perform-or-else.
I just had a 1.5 hour visit with my specialist whom I fly to see 1-2x/yr. He’s the top of his field and was referred by my former treating pulmo who was also top of his field.
It’s very helpful that when I see him, we are able to have a longer visit and get many questions answered compared with the 15 minute visits with my local specialists.
They also have a dedicated person or team who can write to get Rx pre-authorized that my local doctors don’t have. Sadly, our local insurer is also influenced to approve requests from this specialist from a renown facility vs our local specialists. 
I know I’m very fortunate to be able to have both MDs and wish that others did as well. I’m guessing my nationally known specialist likely makes north of $300k but have never asked. I don’t think my local specialist makes anything similar—not as much research and speaking engagements.