ECFMG® Privacy Policy
The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (“ECFMG”) shares your concerns for maintaining the integrity and privacy of personal information collected on the Internet. ECFMG is committed to protecting your privacy, and the following Privacy Policy (“Policy”) is intended to explain our information collection and dissemination practices in connection with the www.ecfmg.org web site (the “Site”). Please review the entire Policy and feel free to contact us at webmaster@ecfmg.org if you have any questions. For privacy practices specific to the Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) Calendar and Scheduling Web Site, please see this site’s User Agreement.
1) Collection of Personal Information from Site Users
While visiting our Site, you may choose to provide personal information to us in the process of completing various on-line forms for participation in ECFMG’s programs and services for international medical students/graduates, international medical schools, U.S. medical licensing authorities, U.S. graduate medical education programs, credentialing agencies, and others. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, date of birth, e-mail address, postal address, telephone number, credit card information, social security and/or national identification numbers, country of birth, citizenship, family status, employment information and information related to your medical education, training, and licensure. You may also choose to provide personal information to us in the process of filling out an on-line application for employment with ECFMG. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, e-mail address, postal address, telephone number, employment history, and list of references. By providing your personal information on-line, you consent to allow ECFMG to use that information in accordance with this Policy.
In general, applicants for participation in ECFMG’s programs and services and applicants for employment with ECFMG are required to respond to all of the questions on our application forms. During the course of applying for ECFMG Certification, applicants may be asked about their ethnicity. Applicants for Certification, however, are not required to provide information regarding ethnicity. Providing information regarding your ethnicity is optional and choosing a particular answer or choosing not to provide this information will not affect the outcome of your application for ECFMG Certification. ECFMG uses information about the ethnicity of its applicants for research purposes, and it is kept confidential. Except in cases where ECFMG is recruiting standardized patients to participate in clinical skills exams, ECFMG does not require candidates for employment to provide information regarding ethnicity.
If, for any reason, you choose not to provide your personal information on-line, you may download certain of our available forms from the Site and mail them to us. To request a single copy of any available publication or form, contact ECFMG by telephone at (215) 386-5900, by fax at (215) 386-9196, or in writing at the address listed below in “Inquiries and Concerns.”
Through the ECFMG Medical School Web Portal (EMSWP), ECFMG provides international medical schools with access to a program through which they can upload medical school transcripts, Medical Student Performance Evaluations (MSPEs), and letters of recommendation (LoRs) on behalf of their students and graduates who participate in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS®) of the Association of American Medical Colleges. If your school participates in the EMSWP ERAS program and you have registered with AAMC’s ERAS website, your school may transmit to ECFMG via the Internet your medical school transcript, MSPE, and LoRs. Medical schools that choose not to participate in EMSWP for the purpose of uploading documents on behalf of their students and graduates who participate in ERAS may continue to send these documents to ECFMG by postal mail or courier.
Medical schools that choose not to participate in EMSWP for the purpose of verifying the status of their students/graduates who apply to ECFMG for the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®) may continue to use our established paper-based verification process.
Through EMSWP, ECFMG provides international medical schools with access to a program through which they can verify the authenticity of medical education credentials of the schools’ students and graduates. These credentials include medical diplomas, final medical school transcripts, and transcripts to document transferred credits. If your school participates in the EMSWP Credentials Verification program, your school may transmit to ECFMG via the Internet your medical diploma and transcripts. Your school also may transmit to ECFMG additional information about your education, including your dates of attendance; the date your medical degree was conferred; the title of your medical degree; title of your undergraduate degree; and details on unusual circumstances that occurred during your medical education, including interruptions or exceptions and the reasons for same, academic or disciplinary probation, disciplinary action, investigations, and limitations and/or special requirements imposed upon you. Medical schools that choose not to participate in EMSWP Credentials Verification may continue to use our established paper-based credential verification process.
Through the Exchange Visitor Network (EVNet), ECFMG provides authorized Training Program Liaisons (TPLs) at U.S. teaching hospitals and research institutions with the ability to submit information on-line to ECFMG about positions that have been offered to physicians who are applying to ECFMG for J-1 visa sponsorship. If you are a physician applying to ECFMG for J-1 sponsorship, the TPL at your proposed program will use EVNet to provide to ECFMG certain information about the position offered to you, including the specialty/subspecialty, post-graduate year (PGY) level, training dates, and stipend. If you are a TPL using EVNet to submit information to ECFMG about such positions, certain information about you, including your name and contact information, will be available to the physicians who have been offered these positions.
Through the On-line Applicant Status and Information System (OASIS), ECFMG provides ERAS applicants with the ability to submit an electronic request for letters of recommendation and for the letter of recommendation writers to submit these letters to ECFMG electronically. Applicants who choose not to submit electronic requests for letters of recommendation through OASIS may contact potential letter writers through other means.
Through OASIS, ECFMG provides applicants for J-1 visa sponsorship with the ability to submit personal information about themselves and their proposed J-2 dependents and to review and accept the details of positions offered to them. If you are applying to ECFMG for J-1 sponsorship, you will be required to provide to ECFMG information, such as your country of most recent legal permanent residence, information about previous J-1 visa sponsorship, and a statement of educational objectives. If you also are applying to ECFMG for J-2 visa sponsorship for your dependents, you will be required to provide to ECFMG the dependents’ personal information, including name as it appears on their passport, gender, date of birth, relationship to you, country of birth, country of citizenship, country of most recent legal permanent residence, and, if applicable, USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number.
Through the ERAS Letter Writer Portal (LWP), ECFMG provides letter of recommendation writers with the ability to submit letters, written in support of applicants’ ERAS applications, electronically to ECFMG. Letter of recommendation writers who choose not to submit their letters to ECFMG via ERAS LWP may decline the request and send their letters to ECFMG by postal mail, e-mail, or fax.
ECFMG offers applicants to selected programs and services the ability to communicate with ECFMG representatives via Live Chat, hosted by Velaro. Individuals who use Live Chat to communicate with ECFMG are asked to provide their name, e-mail address, and USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number; provision of this information is voluntary. Information provided by users, including the contents of on-line conversations, or “chats,” is stored by Velaro. For more information on Velaro’s information collection practices, please see Velaro’s Privacy Policy at http://www.velaro.com/privacy-policy. ECFMG may access, transfer, and store information provided by users, including the contents of chats. Additionally, chats may be monitored by ECFMG for quality assurance purposes. Individuals who choose not to communicate with ECFMG using Live Chat may contact ECFMG by telephone or e-mail.
Applications for ECFMG Certification, USMLE, J visa sponsorship, employment with ECFMG, participation in ECFMG’s IMG Advisors Network (IAN), and the ERAS® Return of Document Service (RODS) may not be downloaded from the Site or requested via phone, fax, or mail. Such applications must be completed on-line through the Site. Requests to have results of a USMLE exam administration withheld from a User’s medical school may not be made via phone, fax, or mail. Such requests must be made on-line through the Site.
When a User accesses any of the on-line services at the Site, cookies are stored in the User’s browser memory and/or written to the User’s computer. A cookie is a small piece of data that is sent to your computer and allows identification of the User. The cookies are used solely to identify the same user from web page to web page and to indicate, in the case of Users with a user id, that the User has been properly authenticated. Cookies stored in the browser’s memory are removed when the User leaves the Site and the browser is closed. Cookies written to the User’s computer become permanently inaccessible either when the User leaves the Site or after a short, pre-determined time out period has expired. Cookies placed by the Live Chat service remain valid and are used to identify a returning user for the purpose of locating past chats with that user. With the exception of the authentication, payment, on-line employment application, OASIS, Interactive Web Applications (IWA), International Medical Education Directory (IMED), IMED Subscription Service, Step 2 CS Calendar and Scheduling, Certification Verification Service (CVS) ON-LINE, IAN, EMSWP pages, EVNet, ERAS LWP, and Live Chat, all non-service web pages are hosted by Verio. For more information regarding Verio's information collection practices, please see Verio's privacy policy at www.verio.com/about/legal/privacy/.
2) Security
As part of ECFMG's pledge to protect your privacy, we employ Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology and password protection to portions of the Site to prevent unauthorized access to your personal information. In order to access your personal information, you must first authenticate your identity by entering your user id, password, and, in some cases, answers to challenge questions. All authentication pages are secured by SSL technology. Similarly, as you prepare to pay for your programs and services, you will enter our secure payment web page and will have a limited amount of time to enter the required information. Please note that pages other than the authentication pages, payment pages, on-line employment application, OASIS, IWA, IMED, IMED Subscription Service, CVS ON-LINE, IAN, EMSWP, EVNet, ERAS LWP, and Live Chat are not secured by SSL or other encryption programs.
ECFMG uses third-party vendors, such as VeriSign and TeleCheck, in order to process your on-line payments. Please see VeriSign’s Privacy Policy at www.verisign.com/truste/index.html and TeleCheck’s Privacy Policy at www.firstdata.com/en_us/privacy.html for more information regarding their security and privacy practices.
ECFMG uses a third-party vendor, Velaro, to provide applicants with the ability to chat on-line with ECFMG representatives in conjunction with selected programs and services. Please see Velaro’s Privacy Policy at http://www.velaro.com/privacy-policy for more information on Velaro’s security and privacy practices.
ECFMG may post surveys on the Site hosted by SurveyMonkey.com or other third parties. For more information regarding SurveyMonkey.com’s security and information collection practices, please see SurveyMonkey.com’s privacy policy.
ECFMG utilizes a third-party application called iApplicants™ Applicant Tracking System to process its on-line employment applications. Please see the iApplicants Applicant Tracking System Privacy Policy at http://www.iapplicants.com/privacy.htm for more information regarding their security and privacy practices.
Please note that, while ECFMG has endeavored to create a secure and reliable site for Users, the confidentiality of any communication transmitted to or from ECFMG via the Site or e-mail cannot be guaranteed. Accordingly, ECFMG is not responsible for the security of information transmitted via the Internet.
3) Use of Personal Information Collected
ECFMG uses the personal information you provide in order to process your applications and requests for or participation in services and in order to verify that you meet the minimum qualifications for our programs and services or for employment with ECFMG. Additionally, ECFMG may use aggregated personal information for research and statistical purposes. ECFMG does not use your personal information for marketing or promotional purposes. In connection with on-line employment applications, except where you tell ECFMG not to, we will keep the information that you submit for future consideration.
4) Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties
The USMLE is sponsored jointly by the National Board of Medical Examiners® (NBME®) and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). In order to ensure an efficient and accurate examination process for applicants for ECFMG Certification, portions of the personal information they provide to us are retained in a database shared by ECFMG, NBME, and FSMB for the purposes of exam registration and scheduling. As a result, if you apply for examination, the NBME and FSMB will have access to your personal information in this capacity. Additionally, this information, as well as performance data from the examination, is used by these organizations for research and statistical purposes, although only in the aggregate.
Through EMSWP, ECFMG provides international medical schools with access to Status Verification, a web-based program for verifying the status of their students and graduates who apply to ECFMG for the USMLE. If you apply to ECFMG for examination and your medical school participates in EMSWP Status Verification, ECFMG and your medical school will exchange certain information contained in your ECFMG and medical school records, such as your name, USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number, medical school identification number, enrollment status, and examination/eligibility period applied for, via the Internet for the purpose of verifying your status and, thus, your eligibility for examination.
Through EMSWP, ECFMG also provides international medical schools with access to data on the performance of their students and graduates on USMLE. If your medical school is eligible to obtain performance data through EMSWP, ECFMG will provide your medical school with certain information via the Internet, such as your name, USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number, medical school identification number (if applicable), examination taken, exam date, whether or not you passed the examination, and for Step 1 and Step 2 CK, your numerical score on a three-digit scale. If the exam result is classified as indeterminate and/or if there was a finding of irregular behavior for the exam administration, these will be noted. If you were provided test accommodations for the exam administration, this will be noted as applicable. All medical schools that use EMSWP to obtain performance data agree to use the data only for appropriate academic purposes (such as program evaluation and faculty development) and for the preparation of required reports to governmental agencies.
Applicants who register for USMLE exams with ECFMG may request to have their exam results withheld from their medical school. In this case, the information provided to the medical school will indicate that the exam results were withheld at the request of the examinee. For more information on ECFMG’s practices regarding the provision of performance data to medical schools and the process by which examinees can request to have their exam results withheld from their medical school, review the Important Information on this topic.
Through EMSWP, ECFMG also provides international medical schools with access to a program through which they can upload medical school transcripts, MSPEs, and LoRs on behalf of their students and graduates who participate in ERAS. International medical schools can also use EMSWP to track receipt of these supporting documents by ECFMG. If your school participates in the EMSWP ERAS program and you request an ERAS Token from ECFMG and/or register that Token with AAMC’s ERAS website, ECFMG will provide your medical school with certain information via the Internet, such as your name; USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number; AAMC Identification Number; date of birth; date on which your Token was requested; whether you have indicated you are a student or a graduate; whether or not you participated in the previous ERAS season; whether or not a photograph, medical school transcript, MSPE, and LoRs have been submitted to ECFMG as part of your ERAS application; and the date on which these documents were submitted to ECFMG.
Through EMSWP, ECFMG also provides international medical schools with access to a program through which they can verify the authenticity of medical education credentials of the schools’ students and graduates. If your school participates in the EMSWP Credentials Verification program, ECFMG may provide your medical school with certain information via the Internet, such as your name, USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number, medical school identification number, and date of birth. ECFMG also may provide your medical school with copies of certain documents via the Internet, such as your medical credentials, medical school release forms, and Certification of Identification Form (Form 186) or Certification Statement (Form 183).
If you are a medical school staff member and use EMSWP, your medical school’s EMSWP Coordinator will have access to your EMSWP User Name, and will have access to and be able to request changes to personal information associated with your EMSWP account, including your name, date of birth, birth country, job title, and contact information, including your e-mail address. This information will be exchanged with ECFMG via the Internet. Additionally, actions that you perform in EMSWP may be associated with your name, and other authorized users at your medical school may have access to this information. If you use EMSWP Credentials Verification to verify medical education credentials, a digitized image of your signature will be included in verifications that you submit to ECFMG via the Internet.
Through EVNet, ECFMG provides authorized Training Program Liaisons (TPLs) with the ability to submit information on-line to ECFMG about positions that have been offered to physicians who are applying to ECFMG for J-1 visa sponsorship and to manage the J-1 visa sponsorship process. If you are applying to ECFMG for J-1 visa sponsorship or are currently sponsored by ECFMG for the J-1 visa, ECFMG may provide to the TPL via the Internet certain information about you and your J-2 dependents, such as name, USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number, gender, date of birth, and information on countries of citizenship and most recent legal permanent residence.
Through OASIS, ECFMG provides ERAS applicants with the ability to submit an electronic request for letters of recommendation and for the letter of recommendation writers to submit these letters to ECFMG electronically. If you make such a request through OASIS, your request will be sent by e-mail to the individual you designate as a letter writer. The e-mail request will include your name, AAMC Identification Number, and information specific to your request, including the medical specialty you are pursuing and whether you have waived your right to view the letter. Letter writers who receive such requests may submit your letters of recommendation to ECFMG electronically.
Through ERAS LWP, ECFMG provides letter of recommendation writers with the ability to submit letters, written in support of applicants’ ERAS applications, electronically to ECFMG. If you use ERAS LWP to submit your letter of recommendation, information that you have verified or provided through ERAS LWP will be available to the applicant that requested the letter. This information includes your name, postal address, and e-mail address, as well as your job title, department, and institution. Additionally, the applicant will have the ability to change this information after you have verified or provided it. The applicant will not have access to or the ability to change the letter.
Applicants for examination should also note that by signing and submitting the Certification Statement or Certification of Identification Form associated with the USMLE application, you authorize ECFMG to transmit the information contained in your application, or that otherwise may become available to ECFMG, to “any federal, state or local governmental department or agency, to any hospital or to any other organization or individual who, in the judgment of ECFMG, has a legitimate interest in such information.”
By participating in IAN as an advisor, you acknowledge that information about yourself that you submit to the IAN database, such as your family status, training institution, and training specialty, and other information from your ECFMG record, such as your name, gender, and medical school, will be available to eligible users of the IAN database. Advisees who select an advisor from the IAN database acknowledge that personal information from their ECFMG record and application for ECFMG J-1 visa sponsorship, including their name, medical school, graduation year, and training specialty and institution, as well as the e-mail address they submit to the IAN database will be sent by e-mail to each advisor they select, unless they choose not to include such information in the e-mail message to the selected advisor.
By requesting return of your ERAS documents via courier shipping through RODS, you acknowledge that ECFMG and FedEx® will exchange information that you submit with your RODS request (such as your mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address) and information from your ECFMG record (such as your name) that is necessary to process your request.
If you are approved for J-1 visa sponsorship by ECFMG, personal information about you and your J-2 dependents and information about the position offered to you will be shared with the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a U.S. government database administered by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Additionally, in accordance with the requirements of ECFMG’s designation by the Department of State as a J-1 visa sponsor, ECFMG may be required to disclose personal information to third parties.
ECFMG also shares certain information about applicants for ECFMG Certification (e.g., name, ECFMG applicant number and certification status, medical school and/or date of birth) with the American Medical Association (the “AMA”) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (the "AAMC"). These organizations use the data that we provide to update and maintain their medical provider databases.
Other than the instances described above, or as ECFMG shall notify User of in the future, ECFMG pledges not to sell, rent, offer, or otherwise disclose any personal information, such as names, e-mail addresses, postal addresses, telephone numbers, credit card information, employment history and other personal information that User voluntarily provides to ECFMG, to any organization or individual without such a legitimate interest (collectively “Third Parties”), except to the extent necessary to comply with applicable laws or valid legal processes, or to protect the rights or property of ECFMG.
As noted above, ECFMG uses third-party vendors to process your on-line payment transactions. In order to process these transactions, your payment information must be disclosed to these third parties. You may review VeriSign's Privacy Policy by clicking here and you may review TeleCheck’s Privacy Policy by clicking here. By paying for your programs and/or services by on-line check, you authorize TeleCheck to obtain a report of your check-writing history in order to prevent fraud and for other authentication purposes.
5) Access and Ability to Correct Personal Data
Using OASIS, properly identified applicants for ECFMG Certification and ECFMG-certified physicians may access and verify or change such personal information as name of record, postal address, e-mail address, fax number and status of their financial account. You may also check the status of your USMLE applications and score reports, USMLE scheduling permits, and medical education credentials. In order to add to or change information in OASIS, you must have both your USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number and a password. If you do not have a password, you may obtain one by accessing OASIS and following the instructions for establishing a new account. OASIS is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the exception of maintenance periods.
Upon a properly authenticated request via postal mail, ECFMG will provide Users who are applicants for ECFMG Certification or ECFMG-certified physicians access to personal information that cannot be otherwise accessed through OASIS, such as credit card information, social security and/or national identification numbers, which User may then change or update. To request access to your personal information, you may write to us at the address listed below in “Inquiries and Concerns.”
Users of EMSWP can request changes to their personal information by contacting their medical school’s EMSWP Coordinator. The EMSWP Coordinator can request such changes for all Users at the medical school by accessing EMSWP at https://emswp.ecfmg.org. The medical school’s EMSWP Coordinator can also request such changes by contacting ECFMG’s EMSWP Administrator by e-mail at emswpadmin@ecfmg.org. ECFMG’s EMSWP Administrator will review these requests and, if approved, implement the requested changes.
Users of EVNet can make changes to their contact information through EVNet.
Applicants for employment may update their information through the on-line employment application at https://ecfmgjobs.iapplicants.com/application.php.
Individuals participating as advisors in IAN may update certain information in their Advisor Profiles by accessing IAN at https://secure2.ecfmg.org/emain.asp?app=ian_advisor.
Individuals participating in IAN as advisees may update certain information in their profiles by accessing IAN at https://secure2.ecfmg.org/emain.asp?app=ian_advisee.
Individuals requesting return of their ERAS documents through RODS can update information related to their request by accessing the RODS feature of OASIS prior to submitting their request.
6) Links to and from ECFMG
This Site may contain links to other Internet web sites. However, ECFMG does not endorse, and is not responsible for, the privacy practices or the content of these web sites.
7) Inquiries and Concerns
The foregoing Policy is effective as of January 11, 2012. ECFMG reserves the right to change this Policy at any time by notifying Users of the existence and location of the new or revised Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the Site after notice of a change shall constitute your acceptance of any such changes to this Policy.
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at webmaster@ecfmg.org. If you would like to review and/or change your personal information, you may do so on-line (please see Item 5 of this Policy) or you may contact us at:
Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG)
3624 Market Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-2685
USA
Phone: (215) 386-5900
Fax: (215) 386-9196
Email: info@ecfmg.org