What is the USMLE?
The acronym USMLE® stands for United States Medical Licensing Examination®.
First implemented in 1992 and accepted by all state medical boards, the USMLE is part of a physician's pathway to licensure.
The USMLE has three examinations, called "Steps" - which are taken at different points in an allopathic physician's education and training. Examinees who pass each Step of the USMLE have demonstrated they understand and can apply medical knowledge, clinical concepts, and fundamental patient-centered skills to obtain a license to practice medicine in the United States.
Why is the USMLE important?
First and foremost, the USMLE ensures that licensed physicians are held to a rigorous and reliable standard, and have demonstrated they understand and can apply the medical knowledge and skills and clinical reasoning to provide safe and effective patient care. In fact, NBME research shows that better USMLE performance correlates to improved patient outcomes.
Who is USMLE?
The USMLE®, or the United States Medical Licensing Examination® program, is owned by two entities: the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the National Board of Medical Examiners® (NBME®).
FSMB is a non-profit organization that represents the 70 state medical and osteopathic boards of the United States and its territories. The individual medical boards are responsible for licensing physicians, investigating patient complaints, and disciplining physicians who violate the law. FSMB acts on behalf of its state board members in providing a national assessment program, providing tools that facilitate the documentation and distribution of credentials, sponsoring a national data base for tracking disciplinary actions, and acting as a national voice for the individual boards on issues of importance to licensing and practice.
NBME offers a versatile selection of high-quality assessments and educational services for students, professionals, educators, regulators and institutions dedicated to the evolving needs of medical education and health care. To serve these communities, we collaborate with a diverse and comprehensive array of practicing health professionals, medical educators, state medical board members, test developers, academic researchers, scoring experts, and public representatives.
Providing guidance for the organization is a 12-member board of directors, comprised of health care professionals and other leaders from both domestic and global institutions.
The NBME develops a number of assessments used in medical education, licensure, and certification, domestically and internationally, and is involved in research and development intended to advance medical education and the science of assessment.
Who Governs USMLE?
USMLE is governed by a committee that includes members from the ECFMG, FSMB, NBME, and the public. This committee is responsible for the overall direction of the program, identifying and approving procedures for scoring and determining the pass/fail standard, and all significant policies and procedures.
Who Writes USMLE Test Questions and Cases?
Members of USMLE test committees include biomedical scientists, educators, and clinicians from every region of the United States. Virtually all LCME-accredited medical schools in the United States have been represented on USMLE test committees. USMLE test committee members represent a “national faculty of medicine” drawn from medical schools, state medical boards, and clinical practice settings across the United States.
Why One National Examination?
USMLE was created in response to the need for one path to medical licensure for allopathic physicians in the United States. Before USMLE, multiple examinations (the NBME Parts examination and the Federation Licensing Examination [FLEX]) offered paths to medical licensure. It was desirable to create one examination system accepted in every state, to ensure that all licensed MDs had passed the same assessment standards – no matter in which school or which country they had trained. Today all state medical boards utilize a national examination – USMLE for allopathic physicians, COMLEX-USA for osteopathic physicians.
USMLE Mission Statement
The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) program supports medical licensing authorities in the United States through its leadership in the development, delivery, and continual improvement of high-quality assessments across the continuum of physicians' preparation for practice.
Goals:
To provide to licensing authorities meaningful information from assessments of physician characteristics—including medical knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes—that are important to the provision of safe and effective patient care.
To engage medical educators and their institutions, licensing authority members, and practicing clinicians in the design and development of these assessments.
To assure fairness and equity to physicians through the highest professional testing standards.
To continue to develop and improve assessments for licensure with the intent of assessing physicians more accurately and comprehensively.
--From https://www.usmle.org/about-usmle
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