Ecfmg 2015 Annual Report

ECFMG has 30 years of experience in primary-source verifying physician credentials and ofers credential 

verifcation services to medical regulatory authorities, medical schools, postgraduate training programs, hospitals, 

and to individual physicians in the United States and around the world. ECFMG’s services provide verifcation of 

credentials related to a physician’s medical education, training, and registration/licensure. 

Trough the following verifcation services, ECFMG promotes quality health care and supports authorities 

and institutions worldwide that protect the public by evaluating the qualifcations of physicians. Tese services 

also respond to the increasing globalization of medical education and health care by facilitating the evaluation of 

physicians to who migrate from countries where they received their medical education and training. 

26

---

ECFMG Certification Verification Service 

Trough the ECFMG Certifcation Verifcation Service (CVS), 

To learn more about CVS, visit 

ECFMG provides confrmation of whether an international physician 

www.ecfmg.org/cvs/.

is certifed by ECFMG. CVS serves entities in the United States 

that rely on ECFMG Certifcation to evaluate the qualifcations of 

international physicians, including hospitals, credentialing agencies, 

state medical licensing boards, and accredited programs of graduate medical education. Requests for CVS reports 

can be made through CVS ON-LINE, available on the ECFMG website. 

In 2015, ECFMG’s CVS issued 85,605 reports of confrmation of ECFMG certifcation status. Exhibit 

12 shows the distribution of these reports by type of requesting organization. 

Exhibit 12: CVS Reports Issued in 2015, by Type of Requesting Organization 

No. 

% 

Credentialing Agencies 

71,456 

83 

State Medical Boards 

10,228 

12 

Residency and Fellowship Programs 

3,921 

5 

Total 

85,605 

100 

Source: ECFMG database. Data current as of February 29, 2016. 

In 1997, The Joint Commission, the organization that evaluates and accredits U.S. health care 

organizations and programs, announced that direct verification with ECFMG of a physician’s 

certification status satisfies The Joint Commission’s requirement for primary-source verification of 

medical school completion for international medical graduates. 

Meeting the W

orld’s needs f

or VerifiC

Ation of PhY

siCiAn Qu

AlifiC

Ations 

27

---

Collaboration with Federation of State Medical 

Boards on U.S. Medical Licensure 

ECFMG collaborates with the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) to streamline the credentials verifcation 

process for international physicians who apply for medical licensure in the United States. As part of its certifcation 

process, ECFMG primary-source verifes the fnal medical diploma and fnal medical school transcript of 

international medical graduates. Since 2004, ECFMG has used a verifcation process for these medical education 

credentials that also meets the requirements of the FSMB’s Federation Credentials Verifcation Service (FCVS), a 

resource for U.S. state medical boards that also ensures primary-source verifcation of a physician’s core medical 

credentials. When international medical graduates whose credentials have been verifed using this mutually 

acceptable process apply to FCVS, ECFMG provides prompt verifcation of their credentials to FCVS, eliminating 

the need for FCVS to obtain primary-source verifcation independently from international medical schools as 

part of the licensure process. If an applicant’s medical education credentials were not verifed using the mutually 

acceptable process, ECFMG reverifes his or her credentials for FCVS. 

In 2015, ECFMG received 4,252 requests from FCVS for verifcation of medical education credentials. 

Of these requests, 86% were for credentials that had been previously verifed using the mutually acceptable process. 

For these 3,649 requests, ECFMG was able to provide verifcation of the credentials to FCVS quickly, expediting 

the completion of the FCVS records for the physicians represented by these requests. 

By late January 2016, ECFMG had verified the credentials of more than 126,000 applicants using a process 

that meets the requirements both for ECFMG Certification and for U.S. medical licensure. 

Collaboration with National Board of Medical Examiners on 

Eligibility for IFOM 

ECFMG collaborates with the National Board of Medical Examiners® (NBME®) to verify the eligibility 

of individual applicants for the NBME’s International Foundations of Medicine (IFOM) examinations. 

Applicants to both the IFOM Clinical Science Examination (CSE) and the IFOM Basic Science Examination 

(BSE) are required to have their student/graduate status verified by ECFMG prior to taking these 

examinations. 

The IFOM program is part of NBME’s portfolio of assessment instruments, consultation, and services to 

the international educational community. IFOM CSE measures knowledge of the fundamentals of clinical 

medicine internationally expected of students who have completed the core requirements of the clinical 

component of the medical curriculum. IFOM BSE measures basic scientific knowledge that international 

students are expected to have prior to the start of clinical training. ECFMG verified the eligibility of more 

than 750 individuals for IFOM in 2015. 

28

---