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Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates

Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPICSM)

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Using EPIC

Overview

Using EPIC is easy. With EPIC, you can:

  • upload your medical credentials directly to ECFMG through a secure web portal
  • have those credentials verified using ECFMG’s rigorous and internationally respected verification process
  • store your verified credentials electronically in one secure location
  • send reports demonstrating the authenticity of your credentials to any evaluating organization anywhere in the world

Once you have established your EPIC Account and you have a valid EPIC Identification Form (EIF) on file, you can start building your portfolio of credentials.

Pursuing ECFMG Certification and registering for the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®)?

If you are pursuing ECFMG Certification and applying for USMLE, you are not required to use EPIC. You will provide your medical education credentials to ECFMG for verification through the ECFMG Certification program.

You are welcome to use EPIC to build a portfolio of your medical credentials, if desired, at any time. Please contact us if you have any questions.

You can add medical credentials to EPIC by uploading them through the “My Credentials” tab of your EPIC Account. For more information on the credentials you can add to your EPIC Portfolio, including definitions and document specifications, see Medical Credentials below.

As we receive your credentials, they will be primary-source verified using ECFMG’s rigorous, multi-step process—a process that has been used to verify more than 1,000,000 medical credentials over the last three decades. You will be able to monitor the status of the verification of your credentials through the “My Credentials” tab.

Once we have received verification of a credential, you will be able to send EPIC Reports demonstrating the authenticity of that credential to organizations around the world. These reports will be delivered electronically using our secure EPIC Report Portal, so the organizations receiving the reports will have the confidence of knowing they are coming directly from ECFMG. For more information, see EPIC Reports below.

There are fees associated with the services you request through EPIC. For more information on fees and payment, see EPIC Fees.

As an EPIC Account holder, you are also responsible for reading and becoming familiar with the ECFMG Policies and Procedures Regarding Irregular Behavior.

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Medical Credentials

Currently, you can add the following types of credentials to your EPIC Portfolio. Unless otherwise indicated, you can add multiple documents for each type of credential.

  • Final Medical Diploma – the diploma issued by your medical school or university after you have completed all requirements for and been awarded your medical degree. The Final Medical Diploma may also be referred to as the Primary Medical Qualification, Carton Degree, Conferral Certificate, or Decorative Degree; this is the credential used for framing and wall-hanging purposes. You may upload only one final medical diploma to EPIC. For the title of the medical credential ECFMG requires as the Final Medical Diploma, please see the Reference Guide for Medical Education Credentials on the ECFMG website.
  • Alternate Graduation Documents – a document, other than a final medical diploma, issued by your medical school or university confirming that you graduated from medical school and are eligible to receive your medical degree.
  • Final Medical School Transcript – the transcript issued by your medical school or university after you have completed all requirements for and been awarded your medical degree. Transcripts may also be known as mark sheets, time sheets, or hour sheets, and should include a listing of all subjects studied and your grades/marks for each subject.
  • Student Medical School Transcript – a transcript issued by a medical school or university prior to completion of all requirements for the medical degree. A student transcript may be issued by a school or university in which you are currently enrolled or by a school or university from which you did not graduate but in which you are no longer enrolled, for example a school from which you transferred credits to the school that awarded or will award your medical degree.
  • Pregraduate Internship Credential – documentation of an internship undertaken prior to completion of all requirements for the medical degree. A medical school internship includes clinical clerkships or rotations you completed while in medical school; it also includes internships or social service required to obtain your medical degree.
  • Postgraduate Medical Education Credential – a document issued by a medical school, university, hospital, or other institution confirming your completion of a clinical medical training program begun after you obtained your medical degree.
  • Specialist Qualification – a document that certifies your qualification as a specialist in the medical field. This may include specialty board certification, board registration as a specialist, membership/fellowship of a specialist college, or diplomate certificate.
  • Medical Registration Certificate – a certificate issued by a medical regulatory authority confirming you are or were registered with that authority.
  • License to Practice Medicine – a license issued by a medical regulatory authority confirming you are or were licensed to practice medicine by that authority.
  • Advanced Degree in the Medical Sciences – a degree completed after graduation from medical school that demonstrates advanced study as a physician in the medical field. This includes clinical studies as well as research.

EPIC can accept credentials in PDF, JPG, and TIF formats, with a maximum file size of 10MB. All pages of the credential must be combined into one file for upload.

When you upload the credential, you will be required to indicate the type of credential, as listed above. Please note that if the credential type you select is incorrect, ECFMG may correct this. If ECFMG changes the document type, this will be reflected in your EPIC Account and in the e-mail advising you that the credential has been sent for verification.

When you upload the credential, you will also be asked to indicate whether the credential is in English. If the credential is not in English, you must also upload an English translation that meets ECFMG’s translation requirements.

English Translations

Any document you upload to EPIC that is not in English must be accompanied by an English translation that meets ECFMG’s translation requirements. ECFMG strongly encourages you to obtain translations from its recommended translation service, Straker Translations . Translations from this service meet ECFMG’s translation requirements and therefore will not be rejected for not meeting these requirements.

Please note that you are not required to use Straker Translations and ECFMG cannot guarantee that Straker will provide you with services. If you use a translation service other than Straker, it is your responsibility to ensure the translation meets ECFMG’s translation requirements.

Using Straker Translations

Straker Translations provides convenient, efficient on-line translation service for any document, including medical credentials and other documents that you upload to EPIC.

Fees charged by Straker Translations vary depending on the number of pages in the document that you wish to have translated, and the source language.

To use Straker Translations to translate your document(s), you must go through the ECFMG landing page of the Straker Translations website at http://www.strakertranslations.com/ecfmg . You will need a PDF file of the document you would like to have translated. Please visit http://www.strakertranslations.com/ecfmg and complete the following steps:

Step 1 – Choose the source language of your document, and upload the PDF file.

Step 2 – Provide the required information.

Step 3 – You will receive an immediate on-screen price quote from Straker Translations followed by an e-mailed quote. Review the price quote. If you would like to proceed with the translation, continue to step 4.

Step 4 – Follow the instructions in the price quote e-mail and make your on-line payment to Straker Translations.

Step 5 – Review and confirm the translated document returned to you via e-mail from Straker Translations. Please note: this is a review copy only and should not be submitted to ECFMG as the final certified translation.

Step 6 – Upload the final PDF of your certified English translation document (certified translation includes the translator’s signature and seal) and the PDF of your original language document to EPIC.

Translation Requirements

English translations that you upload to EPIC must:

  • be prepared by a government official (for example, a Consular Officer), medical school official (for example, a Dean or Registrar), or a professional translation service.
  • include a statement from the government or medical school official or representative of the translation service certifying that the translation is correct.
  • appear on letterhead. If the translation service is a private company, the letterhead must identify the company as a translation service.
  • bear the signature and title of the government or medical school official or representative of the translation service and, if there is one, the seal of the government official, medical school, or translation service.
  • be a word-for-word translation of the original language document. An abstract or summary translation of the document is not acceptable.
  • be prepared from the original document or a photocopy of the original document. We will not accept a translation prepared from a transcription (transcribed version) of the document.

An English language certificate issued by the medical school or institution that is not a word-for-word English language version of the credential in the original language is not acceptable as a translation.

Translations can be uploaded to EPIC in PDF, JPG, and TIF formats, with a maximum file size of 10MB. All pages of the translation must be combined into one file for upload.

English translations that do not meet the requirements above will not be accepted. Examples of unacceptable translations include, but are not limited to:

  • translations prepared by a notary who is not a government or medical school official or representative of a professional translation service
  • a translation that was not signed by the translator or official or representative of the translation service
  • a translation that is not a word-for-word translation of the original language document

Additionally, you are not permitted to translate your own documents.

The Name on Your Credential

It is important for ECFMG to ensure that the credentials uploaded for verification belong to the account holder. If the name on your credential does not match the name associated with your EPIC Account, you will be contacted to provide documentation to confirm that both names belong to one and the same person. For the purpose of verifying your name, examples of the document(s) you may submit include:

  • Government document issued for the purpose of identification (Photo ID, Driver’s license, or expired passport with your photograph and the expiration date)
  • Birth Certificate
  • Marriage Certificate/License (if name discrepancy is due to name change after marriage)
  • Official Court Order/Name Change Documentation

Examples of documentation that is not acceptable include:

  • An affidavit, attestation, or statutory declaration issued explicitly regarding name variation on medical credentials
  • Revised credentials with a corrected name (if the institution is willing to provide you with a new credential, please obtain this revised document before uploading anything to EPIC)
  • Additional medical credentials (for example, a Medical Registration Certificate/License to Practice Medicine is not acceptable name documentation for a Final Medical Diploma)

ECFMG will also review, for the purposes of verifying your name, a letter from the medical education institution that issued your credential verifying that the names refer to one and the same person. If you choose to submit a letter from your issuing institution to verify the name on your credential, the letter you submit must be completed and signed by an official at the institution issuing your credential. The official must provide his/her name, official title, and the institution name. The official must compose the letter on institution letterhead with the appropriate seal. The letter also must include the following statement:

This certifies that the names [name on document] and [name in ECFMG record] belong to one and the same person.

Please note that if you do not have government-issued documentation, you must provide a letter as above from each institution that issued a credential to you with a name that does not match your EPIC Account. If you are able to secure letters from your issuing institutions to verify your names, you may send the letters to EPIC as PDF files once your documents have been uploaded.

If the name documentation is written in a language other than English, it must be accompanied by a certified, word-for-word translation that meets ECFMG requirements.

Please note that documentation acceptable to EPIC for the purpose of validating a difference in name may not necessarily be acceptable to the authority that receives an EPIC Report on the verified credential. Please contact the institutions to which you plan to send EPIC Reports for guidance on their name documentation policy.

Important Note Regarding Credentials Previously Verified by ECFMG

If your credentials have been primary-source verified by ECFMG for ECFMG Certification or through ECFMG’s International Credentials Services (EICS), you may not need to upload these credentials through EPIC and pay the associated fee. Within 10 business days of establishing your EPIC Account, ECFMG will review your file, and if these verifications are acceptable, we will add the verified credentials to your EPIC Portfolio at no cost.

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EPIC Reports

EPIC Reports are an innovative way to demonstrate the authenticity of your credentials—with just a few clicks you will be able to request verification reports for any organization involved in evaluating your qualifications.

Physicians can use EPIC to request that their credentials, and reports verifying the authenticity of those credentials, be sent to any organization anywhere in the world. ECFMG works with medical regulatory authorities around the world in the verification of credentials for their applicants; see EPIC Partner Organizations for more information. In the United States, where medical licensure is granted by authorities (“state medical boards”) of the individual states and territories, ECFMG works closely with the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and its Federation Credentials Verification Service (FCVS) . Nearly all U.S. state medical boards accept FCVS for licensure and some require that applicants for licensure use FCVS. If you are considering licensure in a U.S. jurisdiction, you should verify licensure application requirements directly with the jurisdiction.

There are two ways to request an EPIC Report.

  1. Request an EPIC Report when you upload your credential so that a report is sent automatically as soon as the credential is verified. As you upload your credential, you will have the option to request that one EPIC Report be sent automatically once your credential has been verified. To request this, select the entity to which you would like the report sent from the list provided at the time you upload your credential. Please note, only entities that have established EPIC Report Portal Accounts will be available in the list. To send a report to any entity not included in the list provided, or to send additional EPIC Reports, you can request the report through the “My Reports” tab after your credential has been verified (see #2 below).

    Certain entities that have Report Portal accounts have requested to be notified when their applicants' credentials have been sent for verification through EPIC. If the entity you select has elected to receive EPIC notifications, a notification will be sent automatically once your credential has been sent for verification. To learn more about the information included in notifications, visit the Frequently Asked Questions for Physicians.

    Important Note: The option to request an EPIC Report at the time a credential is uploaded was implemented on January 10, 2018. If your credential was submitted prior to January 10, 2018, you did not have this option and a report will not automatically be sent for your credential. To send an EPIC Report, you must request the report through the "My Reports" tab (see #2).

  2. Request an EPIC Report through the "My Reports" tab after the credential has been verified. Once we have received verification of a credential you uploaded to EPIC, we will notify you so that you can request verification reports for that credential. To request an EPIC Report, click the “Request Report” button on the “My Reports” tab in your EPIC Account. Then, select the credential for which you are requesting a report from your list of verified credentials and provide information about where you would like ECFMG to send the report.

    You can select a report recipient from our database of more than 2,500 regulatory authorities, medical schools, and other institutions around the world, or you can enter the name, city, and country of an organization that does not appear in our database. If the organization to which you are sending the report does not have an EPIC Report Portal Account, you also will be required to provide the e-mail address to which the report should be sent.

Included on each EPIC Report are:

  • the name, date of birth, and gender in your EPIC record
  • your name as it appears on the credential
  • your EPIC ID
  • your photo
  • the date the report was issued
  • the name, city, and country of the entity for which the report was generated
  • the type of credential
  • the name and location of the institution that issued the credential

Each EPIC Report is also accompanied by:

  • a copy of the credential
  • a copy of the English translation you submitted, if the credential is not in English
  • a copy of the verification form completed by the verifying institution, if the report recipient has an EPIC Report Portal Account

These reports will be delivered electronically using our secure EPIC Report Portal, so the organizations receiving them will have the confidence of knowing they are coming directly from ECFMG.

If the organization to which you have sent an EPIC Report has an EPIC Report Portal Account, the report will be available for one year following the date the report was sent.

If the organization to which you have sent an EPIC Report does not have an EPIC Report Portal Account, the report will be available for 60 days. Please note: If you are asked to provide an e-mail address for the report recipient at the time you request a report, the organization does not have an EPIC Report Portal Account.

If an organization indicates that they need access to your report after the expiration period, you will need to request a new report for that organization and pay the associated fee. Please see EPIC Fees for information on current pricing.

EPIC Reports are intended only for the report recipient (the entity you enter when you request a report) and are valid only if the report recipient obtains the report through the EPIC Report Portal.

You can request an EPIC Report for yourself, but you cannot send that report to or share it with other individuals or organizations. If you name another entity as a report recipient, neither you nor the report recipient can send that report to or share it with third parties. ECFMG makes no claims about the authenticity of any verification report not obtained by the report recipient through the EPIC Report Portal. Any reproduction, transfer, distribution, or other dissemination for use other than by the report recipient is strictly prohibited and could result in legal action.

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[Last update: March 24, 2023]

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