The ECFMG(r) Reporter

An E-Newsletter for International Medical Graduates Pursuing Graduate
Medical Education in the United States

Issue 116 - July 18, 2007


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IN THIS ISSUE:

- AN ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING FRAUDULENT LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION


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AN ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING FRAUDULENT LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

International medical students/graduates, including Fifth Pathway
participants, who participate in the Electronic Residency Application
Service (ERAS(r)) are reminded that the submission of fraudulent letters
of recommendation to ECFMG constitutes irregular behavior, as defined by
ECFMG.

Allegations of irregular behavior are reviewed by the ECFMG Medical
Education Credentials Committee, a standing committee of the ECFMG Board
of Trustees. If the Committee determines an individual has engaged in
irregular behavior:

- a permanent annotation will be included in his or her ECFMG Status
Reports and Certification Verification Service (CVS) Reports;

- additional information explaining the basis for the finding of
irregular behavior and the resulting action will accompany every ECFMG
Status Report and CVS Report and may also be provided to legitimately
interested entities; and

- the decision will be reported to the Federation of State Medical
Boards Board Action Data Bank, state medical licensing authorities,
directors of graduate medical education programs, and to any other
organization or individual who, in the judgment of ECFMG, has a
legitimate interest in such information.

Furthermore, ECFMG may:

- bar an individual from exams; and

- withhold or revoke a Standard ECFMG Certificate.

In recent years, the ECFMG Medical Education Credentials Committee has
made a determination of irregular behavior in 12 cases based upon the
submission of either altered or wholly fabricated letters of
recommendation. In 11 of these cases, the applicant's Standard ECFMG
Certificate was revoked. Since these individuals are no longer certified
by ECFMG, they are not eligible to participate in an accredited
residency program in the United States and are not eligible to take
USMLE Step 3.

In an effort to address the issue of fraudulent letters of
recommendation and align the ECFMG ERAS document policies with those
established for U.S. medical graduates, ECFMG requires all international
medical students and graduates participating in ERAS to submit original
letters of recommendation. These letters must be written on official
institutional letterhead and manually signed by the letter writer in an
ink color other than black. For enhanced authentication, applicants are
advised to request the letter writer to affix an institutional seal to
the letter of recommendation.

ECFMG makes a visual inspection of the letters when they are received to
determine if they are originals or copies. If ECFMG determines that a
letter of recommendation is a copy, the document will be stamped to
indicate that it is a copy before it is made available to program
directors. Refer to the letter of recommendation requirements on the
ECFMG ERAS website for more information on this policy.

Directors of residency and fellowship programs are responsible for
verifying the authenticity of letters of recommendation. In most of the
recent cases reviewed by the ECFMG Medical Education Credentials
Committee, the fraudulent letters of recommendation were detected by
program directors attempting to verify the letters' authenticity.

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ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

As an organization, ECFMG is committed to providing information on
issues of importance to international medical graduates. We realize that
many individuals would like updated information on developing issues
related to ECFMG Certification and entry into graduate medical education
in the United States. As a result, ECFMG has developed The ECFMG(r)
Reporter to provide international medical graduates worldwide with
timely, objective information on current topics of interest. It is our
hope that this newsletter will allow physicians educated outside the
United States and Canada to make informed choices on issues that shape
their careers.

Previous issues of The ECFMG(r) Reporter are available on the ECFMG
website. Subsequent issues will be posted to the ECFMG website as they
are published. To access previous issues, visit the ECFMG website at
www.ecfmg.org/reporter.

Interested individuals can join or leave The ECFMG(r) Reporter mailing
list at any time. To join or leave, visit The ECFMG Reporter home page
at www.ecfmg.org/reporter.

Please do not reply to this message. Messages received at this address
will not receive responses.

We hope you find these updates helpful. Thank you for your interest in
ECFMG.

Copyright (c) 2007 by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical
Graduates (ECFMG(r)). All rights reserved.

OK, my attending's secretary gave me the original to send to ERAS. So if I am reading your post right, steph, I need to give it back to him (or his secretary) with the waiver form and have them send both in? Sorry for the nitpicking, just a little confused about the details here. I see other students picking up their original letters as well.

Did you read my question?

Mail it in yourself and attach the waiver form.

--double post, my bad--

Thanks for the quick reply. Just re-read the waiver form... you're right I guess that's all I need to do then... Man, I need more sleep and less VMD.

A little off topic, but I would highly recommend that every applicant try to see their letter before its sent out. Just b/c an attending says yes they will write a LOR does not mean they know how to do so. It an art and a skill to write a good LOR. PDs are quick to decipher if the person writing really know you or is just writing a generic LOR. Usually, an attending will either give you the letter or you can kinda hint that you want to see it, I highly recommend this. Some people are poor writers and even though they mean the best, it just doesn't come out on paper. Just my 2 cents.

to tell you the truth, i have already sent in three letters without waiving my right to see the letter. 1) I will not send in any letters without first seeing what is says 2) If i have seen the letter i will not lie and say i have. This will be explained to the program directors if asked.
I received all the letters from attendings, they handed the letter to me, and told me to mail it in. It is hard enough to approach someone after a medicine rotation one year ago to ask for a letter of rec. If they even agree to writing it, they simply hand back the letter to you, they cant be bothered to mail in this stuff. So it is the way it is and i am sure that more than 65% of all applicants are approaching it this way as well. Whether, you see it or not, as long as an original signature is present and not a copy, i dont see a problem.

actually a stylistically "Well written" letter is nice but not the big issue. there are well known code phrases: any attending in a geren book hospital should know these. However it is VERY true that you might get a poor letter, not in terms of style but essentially a non-recommendation. But be warned: if you piss off your letter writer by being too pushy (i wanna see it!) then you can cause your own probems. Tred carefully.

__________________
Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

Not waiving the right is a very bad idea in general. I guess an exception being that if you know you've done a bad job and really the idea of the loss of some interviews for not waving is less determental than their seeing what they say about you. I know many PDs wont consider a letter not waived and that is completely their perogative. BUt you wouldnt know this necessarily; you simply woudlnt get an interview with the program.

__________________
Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.