A growing trend for Canadian medical students to relocate to the US for work has emerged, according to reports.

A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has discovered that one in nine Canadian-trained doctors is living in the states and treating Americans, reports the Toronto Star.

Each year this equates to the equivalent of two Canadian medical schools existing just to provide medical graduates for the US ñ it also means the country is the second largest exporter of immigrant doctors to the US after India.

On average between 1995 and 2004, 517 doctors who completed medical residency training in Canada left the country.

Dr Walter Rosser, co-author of the study, said his research found that many of the Canadian medics working in the US preferred rural America as their location with 1,023 Canadian physicians working in such regions in 2006.

Speaking about how many doctors are leaving Canada, Mr Rosser commented "I was blown away by those numbers".

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