• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Verifying overseas medical school education

Credentialing Resource Center Connection, May 22, 2003

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Credentialing Resource Center Connection!

Dear Credentialing Colleague:

If you've been in the credentialing field for any length of time, you've probably faced a situation in which you couldn't, despite your best efforts, obtain primary-source verification of a physician's foreign medical school education.

In some instances, overseas schools have closed down, while others exist in countries that have become closed dictatorships.

So what is a hospital to do? First, recognize that if the individual holds a license to practice medicine issued by your state's medical board, it's highly likely that the board was convinced that the candidate did indeed complete medical school. If the applicant completed an approved residency training program in the United States, it is also likely that the residency program was convinced that the individual completed medical school.

The evidence that may have convinced the licensing board and the residency program might be the applicant's passing of the Educational Council for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) exam. Sitting for this exam requires the applicant to establish his or her successful completion of medical school beyond any doubt.

Hospitals may, if their attempts to primary-source verify fail, rely on the ECFMG as verification of medical education. If your credentials committee desires further assurance that the candidate did not commit identity theft, it should ask the applicant for the names of three physician classmates, their addresses, and other relevant contact information. A digital camera will quickly and inexpensively provide you with a picture of the applicant. This photo can then be sent for identification purposes to the three medical school colleagues.

While one might think that the above measures should be the applicant's responsibility, we do recognize that world circumstances occasionally reach beyond the control of individuals with the best intentions.

That's all for this week.

All the best,

Hugh Greeley

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Credentialing Resource Center Connection!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive