Update....Good News from PAIRO for IMGs who started residency in Ontario on or prior to July 1, 2010

Update From PAIRO:

This message is to report good news for those current trainees who have successfully completed the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) but have not done the Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada (LMCC) exams - MCCQE 1 & 2.

On October 12th, you received a message from PAIRO regarding the CPSO changes to requirements for registration for an independant practice license in Ontario and the discontinuation of USMLE as an acceptable alternative to LMCC (Oct 12 message copied further below as reminder of the details).

In follow-up to our meeting with CPSO representatives, the CPSO Registration Committee agreed that it will generally apply the policy in place prior to CPSO Council's amendments on February 19th, 2010, to:

• individuals who held a certificate of registration in Ontario on February 19th, 2010, prior to the change in policy; and
• individuals who were matched in fall 2009 through the CaRMS process for a training position in Ontario that began on July 1, 2010. 

Important: not all provinces accept USMLE as an acceptable alternative (this is why the CPSO had to change their acceptance of it as a standard for independant practice). Therefore, anyone who qualifies for the grandparenting of USMLE in place of LMCC should continue with the MCC exams if you want your qualifications to be portable across Canada.

Thanks to the US and International Medical Graduate members who provided details via the on-line survey we conducted. The info we collected was very helpful in our success with this issue.

We are very appreciative of the CPSO responding to our concern for members who entered the training system in Ontario in this and previous years who had the expectation that USMLE would be accepted.

Dr. Ceara McNeil

PAIRO President

USMLE VS LMCC (MCCQE)

This just in from the Professional Association of Internes and Residents of Ontario (PAIRO):

If you have successfully completed the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) but have not done the Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada (LMCC) exams - MCCQE 1 & 2 - then this message is for you.

Earlier this year the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) made a policy change that it will no longer accept the USMLE exams as equivalent to the MCCQE 1 & 2, for granting of an independent practice certificate in Ontario. An individual with the USMLE exams (instead of MCCQE 1 & 2) and the specialty exam will be required to practice under supervision for one year and would have to undergo a practice assessment by the CPSO, following which the individual would get a restricted certificate of registration limited to his/her specialty.

This change has been made as a result of the licensing authorities across Canada agreeing to a common entry to practice standard for full licensure “Canadian Standard.” To get a full independent practice certificate, an individual must now hold an acceptable medical degree, the LMCC and certification by the College of Family Physicians of Canada or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

We [PAIRO] have heard from several members who are US medical school graduates (and a couple of IMGs) who began residency training in Ontario prior to the change, and expecting USMLE exams to be a comparable substitution did not undertake to do the LMCC when their colleagues did.

We [PAIRO] have been in discussion with the CPSO regarding the specific difficulties this poses for some of our members who entered their residency believing that the USMLE was an acceptable exam for independent registration in Ontario.

As part of our ongoing discussions with the CPSO to try and find an alternate approach for residents who are currently training, it is important that we have an understanding of how many of our members are affected by this change.

 
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