EDITORIAL

Under the auspices of ECFMG and FAIMER

Con los auspicios de ECFMG y FAIMER

Alberto Oriol Bosch

Presidente de la Fundación Educación Médica. E-mail: aoriolb@gmail.com

From now on, Educación Médica enjoys the benefits of being auspicated by ECFMG and FAIMER. The Foundation's Board of Directors and the Editorial Board of the Journal express their recognition and deeply appreciate it.

ECFMG stands for Educational Comission for Foreign Medical Graduates. ECFMG is a respectable not-for-profit organization that celebrated its 50 years of existence promoting international medical education in 2006 with an invitational Conference where over 200 most relevant international medical educationalist from 24 different countries dealt with the topic: ‘Impact of International Medical Graduates on U.S. and Global Health Care' (Acad Med 2006; 81 (Suppl): S1-68).

During its first half century of existence, ECFMG certified over 280,000 international medical graduates, facilitating their entry into the United States for clinical postgraduate specialist training and research experiences. ECFMG has gathered over the years a unique information on the performance of the more than 650,000 international candidates that have taken the required examination for accreditation to be trained in U.S. Therefore ECFMG has accumulate over the years a worldwide perspective based on the data gathered from the different country elites, that choose to have their postgraduate educational training completed in the U.S.

ECFMG has also greatly contributed by incorporating since 1998 the clinical skills assessment in the credentialing process. Many countries benefited from the decision taken in the early 80's by ECFMG to asses the clinical skills since the need for previous international studies before its full implementation brought to Spain by the hand of Alton Sutnick and Miriam Friedman Ben-David, then at ECFMG, the required know-how to implement the clinical skills assessment methodology. This has been the main field of research before the establishment of FAIMER. In the first six years, ECFMG assessed the skills of some 45.000 physicians becoming the world's leading institution in this field.

ECFMG over the years has become the most knowledgeable organization on medical schools credentials. Its medical schools credentials reference library contains samples diplomas from more than 1,500 medical schools and therefore is the best suited organization for their verification. With this unique expertise and resources, ECFMG established an international credentialing service capable to provide organizations and authorities responsible for medical registration, assessment and licensing of medical graduates with the verification of the credentials of those candidates that completed their medical education outside their jurisdiction.

Because of its special position in the movements of professionals across international boundaries, ECFMG is well aware of the importance of internationally recognized standards of professional quality. For that purpose, it has reached an agreement with WFME (World Federation for Medical Education) to support its work on the further development of the ‘Global Standards for Medical Education' -Educ Med 2004; 7 (Supl 2).

In order to fulfill ECFMG's commitment to promote excellence in international medical education, a faculty exchange program was first set in the early 80's and then consultation services provided for foreign medical schools. Finally, in 2000, it was decided to establish a separate Foundation to maximize the available resources for that purpose and FAIMER was incorporated.

FAIMER (Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research) aims at creating educational opportunities for medical educators and improving the dissemination of knowledge in medical education. The development of data resources and dissemination processes in medical education advancements are operational strategies that coincide with this Journal interests and responsibilities, providing therefore an area for cooperative efforts.