Medical Council of New Zealand and ECFMG Announce Partnership
WELLINGTON, New Zealand and PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Medical Council of New Zealand (Council) and the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG®) are pleased to announce their collaboration to incorporate ECFMG's Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPICSM) into the Council's process for assessing international medical graduates (IMGs). Effective November 1, 2017, first-time applicants for medical registration, and (in some cases) doctors already registered with the Council but applying for a new scope of practice, are required to have their medical qualifications primary-source verified through EPIC if their application relies on a primary medical qualification from either an institution outside New Zealand or a postgraduate qualification conferred by an institution other than a New Zealand or Australasian training provider.
The Medical Council of New Zealand is charged with protecting the health and safety of New Zealand's public. Registration with the Council is a requirement for all doctors who practise medicine in New Zealand. ECFMG is proud to partner with the Council to add primary-source verification—a best practice and the best protection against fraudulent credentials—to the Council's tools for evaluating doctors' qualifications. William W. Pinsky, M.D., President and CEO of ECFMG, noted "Evaluating doctors' medical credentials is essential to the work that medical regulatory authorities perform in their efforts to promote quality health care and protect the public. ECFMG is pleased to be able to provide enhanced support to the Council's evaluation process through EPIC."
Philip Pigou, CEO of the Medical Council of New Zealand said "Primary-source verification is a further tool for the Council to ensure that all doctors practising in New Zealand are who they say they are, and have the qualifications they claim to have. This will add further rigour into Council's processes for assessing IMGs."
About EPIC
EPIC offers primary-source verification of medical credentials—verifying the authenticity of a credential directly with the issuing institution—to organizations and medical doctors worldwide. EPIC employs the same world-class, primary-source verification process used by ECFMG to verify credentials for other ECFMG services, including ECFMG Certification, the standard for international physicians entering the U.S. health care system. EPIC offers organizations secure, no-cost access to primary-source verification. For physicians, EPIC is an innovative way to build a digital career portfolio of the credentials related to their medical education, training, and registration/licensure—a portfolio that can grow with their careers. For more information, visit www.ecfmgepic.org.
About MCNZ
The Medical Council of New Zealand is responsible for regulating doctors in New Zealand. The Council's statutory purpose is to protect public health and safety by putting in place mechanisms to ensure that doctors are competent and fit to practise. The Council provides leadership to the medical profession and enhances public trust by promoting excellence and openness in medical practice.
About ECFMG
Established in 1956, ECFMG is a private, nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with more than 900 full- and part-time employees.
ECFMG is a world leader in promoting quality health care—serving physicians, members of the medical education and regulatory communities, health care consumers, and those researching issues in medical education and health workforce planning. ECFMG's program of certification evaluates whether international medical graduates are ready to enter U.S. programs of graduate medical education, where they provide supervised patient care. ECFMG offers a variety of other programs for the world's physicians and the entities worldwide that educate, train, register/license, and employ them.
ECFMG's organizational members are the American Board of Medical Specialties, American Medical Association, Association of American Medical Colleges, Association for Hospital Medical Education, Federation of State Medical Boards, and the National Medical Association.
For more information, visit the ECFMG website at www.ecfmg.org.
ECFMG CONTACT: Elizabeth Ingraham, +1 (215) 823-2108, [email protected]
MCNZ CONTACT: Valencia van Dyk, +64 4 3816992, [email protected]
SOURCE ECFMG
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