The United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®) program announced today that it has discontinued work to relaunch a modified Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) examination. In the spring of 2020, the USMLE program suspended Step 2 CS due to the COVID-19 pandemic and announced that it would take 12-18 months to bring back a modified Step 2 CS exam. In today’s announcement, the USMLE program indicated that it has no plans to bring back Step 2 CS and that it would use this change in direction to take additional time to partner with the medical education and medical board community to better develop innovative ways to assess the breadth of clinical skills in medicine. Please contact the USMLE Program with any questions on this decision and with any other USMLE-related inquiries.
Prior to the suspension of Step 2 CS, IMGs were required to pass this exam to meet the clinical and communication skills requirements for ECFMG Certification and to pursue U.S. graduate medical education (GME). Today, ECFMG®|FAIMER® announced that it is expanding its pathways that allow qualified IMGs to meet these requirements for ECFMG Certification and to continue to pursue U.S. GME. Detailed information is under development and will be posted on ECFMG’s website very soon. Please monitor the 2022 pathways web page on the ECFMG website for the latest information.
