Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates
ECFMG is a world leader in promoting quality health care—serving physicians, members of the medical education and regulatory communities, health care consumers, and those researching issues in medical education and health workforce planning.
International medical graduates (IMGs) comprise nearly one-quarter of the U.S. physician workforce. Certification by ECFMG is the standard for evaluating the qualifications of these physicians before they enter U.S. graduate medical education (GME), where they provide supervised patient care. ECFMG Certification also is a requirement for IMGs to take Step 3 of the three-step United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®) and to obtain an unrestricted license to practice medicine in the United States.
The purposes (goals) that actuate and accomplish ECFMG’s mission are to:
- Certify the readiness of international medical graduates for entry into graduate medical education and health care systems in the United States through an evaluation of their qualifications.
- Provide complete, timely, and accessible information to international medical graduates regarding entry into graduate medical education in the United States.
- Assess the readiness of international medical graduates to recognize the diverse social, economic and cultural needs of U.S. patients upon entry into graduate medical education.
- Identify the needs of international medical graduates to become acculturated into U.S. health care.
- Verify credentials and provide other services to health care professionals worldwide.
- Provide international access to testing and evaluation programs.
- Expand knowledge about international medical education programs and their graduates by gathering data, conducting research, and disseminating the findings.
- Improve international medical education through consultation and cooperation with medical schools and other institutions relative to program development, standard setting, and evaluation.
- Improve assessment through collaboration with other entities in the United States and abroad.
- Improve the quality of health care by providing research and consultation services to institutions that evaluate international medical graduates for entry into their country.
- Enhance effectiveness by delegating appropriate activities in international medical education to FAIMER.
ECFMG 3624 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-2685 USA https://www.ecfmg.org/
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