Predicting the first-year performances of international medical graduates in an internal medicine residency

Abstract

Recent growth in the number of international medical graduates (IMGs)--i.e., graduates of non-U.S. and non-Canadian medical schools--who fill positions in internal medicine residencies requires examination of the predictive validity of selection criteria. Data were analyzed for 46 foreign-born IMGs who entered the internal medicine residency at Wright State University School of Medicine between January 1985 and January 1991. The t-test and Pearson correlation were used to relate ten selection variables (age, gender, foreign clinical experience, U.S. clinical experience, clinical experience in the two years prior to residency, time between medical school graduation and residency, performance on the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination in the Medical Sciences--FMGEMS--Parts I and II, interview language skill, and interview rank category) to performance ratings the IMGs received in the first year of residency. Only performance on the FMGEMS Part I (p = .045) and clinical experience in the two years prior to residency (p = .005) were related significantly to subsequent performance in residency. The results suggest that recent clinical experience and performance on standardized examinations are the two selection criteria most predictive of foreign-born IMGs' first-year performances as internal medicine residents.