Navigating Change: Embracing the Role of International Medical Graduates as the United States Enters a Period of Transition

As the United States enters another period of transition in both federal and state governments, including the White House, Intealth™ reaffirms its commitment to our organization’s core values and mission — advancing quality in health care education worldwide and supporting international medical graduates (IMGs) and the essential contributions they make to U.S. health care.

Regardless of the election outcomes, our nation will continue to face a critical shortage of physicians. IMGs — comprising citizens of both the United States and other countries — are one-quarter of our nation’s physician workforce and more likely to practice in primary care as well as rural and other vulnerable communities. Intealth is uniquely positioned to inform and address this workforce challenge as a leader in medical education and research, with a robust portfolio of services designed to verify qualifications and support IMGs throughout their journey.

Intealth will advocate for policies that support IMGs, ensuring that these physicians are not adversely affected by potential changes that can occur with any transition in government. We will work to protect and enhance the pathways to U.S. medicine, including graduate medical education (GME) and professional licensure. For IMGs who are not U.S. citizens, we will promote immigration processes that are fair, predictable, and efficient. Importantly, as the sponsor of J-1 exchange visitor visas for medical residency, we will also continue to collaborate with the U.S. Department of State to enrich these educational and cultural exchange experiences.

Central to Intealth’s advocacy efforts is our commitment to educate the public and policy makers about the significant contributions of IMGs to health care in the United States and beyond. We look forward to working with others in academic medicine and government to ensure a robust and inclusive health care workforce that serves the U.S. public effectively.

Change in Provision of USMLE Service Functions

The co-sponsors of the United States Medical Licensing Examination^® (USMLE^®), the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and NBME, are developing plans to centralize all USMLE service functions. As part of these plans, USMLE services currently provided to IMGs by ECFMG^®, a division of Intealth, will transition to the USMLE co-sponsors.

This change will consolidate all USMLE examinee services, including exam registration, score report delivery, and USMLE customer service, with the USMLE co-sponsors. The goal of this change is to streamline the examinee journey and to create a more consistent and efficient examinee experience.

The transition of USMLE services is expected to take place no earlier than mid-2025. Until then, ECFMG will continue to provide USMLE services to IMGs.

For more information, please read the full announcement on the USMLE website.