Medical Licensing
The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is a multi-part professional exam Medical doctors with an MD degree are required to pass this examination before being permitted to practice medicine.
The USMLE assesses a physician’s ability to apply knowledge, concepts, and principles, and to determine fundamental patient-centered skills that are important in health and disease and that constitute the basis of safe and effective patient care. Examination committees composed of medical educators and clinicians from across the United States and its territories prepare the examination materials each year.
Students and graduates of U.S. or Canadian medical school programs accredited by the LCME, leading to the MD (Doctor of Medicine) degree, or by the AOA, leading to the DO (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) degree, register for Step 1 and Step 2 of the USMLE with the NBME. Students and graduates of medical schools outside the United States or Canada register for Step 1 and Step 2 with the ECFMG. Graduates of medical schools in and outside the United States and Canada register for Step 3 with the FSMB or with a medical licensing authority in the United States. Each of the three steps of the USMLE examination complements the other; no step stands alone in the assessment of readiness for medical licensure. The USMLE program recommends that for Step 3 eligibility, licensure authorities require the completion, or near completion, of at least one postgraduate training year in a program of graduate medical education accredited by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA).
All three steps of the USMLE exam must be passed before a physician with an MD degree is eligible to apply for a license to practice medicine in the United States. Students who have graduated from non-US medical schools must pass all three steps of the USMLE to be licensed to practice in the US, regardless of the title of their degree. Overall pass rates for first time USMLE Step 1 test takers are: 92% for U.S. MD medical school graduates, 81% for U.S. DO osteopathic medical school graduates, and 73% for international medical school graduates. Overall pass rates for first time USMLE Step 3 test takers are: 95% for U.S. MD medical school graduates, 95% for U.S. DO medical school graduates, and 78% for international medical school graduates.
