We recommend upgrading to the latest Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Firefox.
In association with an AAMC background check pilot program, the University of South Florida will be requiring background checks of all students who reach conditional admissions status with the University. Once the University of South Florida updates your record in AMCAS stating that you are conditionally admitted for the University, Certiphi Screening, Inc. (a Vertical Screen® Company) will email you. This email will request that you follow a link to a website where you will authorize them to perform a criminal background check on you. Within five days of your authorization you should then receive a second email from Certiphi with the results of your background check and directions on how to contest your results if you find that necessary. If you feel the need to contest your report you will be given ten (10) days to initiate the process. If this is not necessary you will be able to authorize Certiphi to send your report to us immediately. Certiphi will automatically forward your background check report to us within ten (10) days if they receive no correspondence from you.
For more information on this process please refer to the officially published background check details provided by AMCAS.
Students are expected to develop a robust medical knowledge base and the requisite clinical skills, with the ability to appropriately apply their knowledge and skills, effectively interpret information, and contribute to patient-centered decisions across a broad spectrum of medical situations and settings.
The technical standards presented in this document are prerequisite, non-academic requirements for admission, progression, and graduation from the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine MD program. Delineation of technical standards is required for the accreditation of U.S. medical schools by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) in Element 10.5.
10.5 Technical Standards
A medical school develops and publishes technical standards for the admission, retention, and graduation of applicants or medical students in accordance with legal requirements.
All required courses in the curriculum are designed to develop the essential skills necessary to become a competent physician.
Historically, undergraduate medical education in the U.S. has been structured as a broad general training, which is intended to produce "undifferentiated physicians." Graduates of medical school must have the knowledge and skills to function in a broad range of clinical situations and to render a wide spectrum of patient care. The Morsani College of Medicine intends for its students and graduates to become competent and compassionate physicians through an undifferentiated medical degree and who can enter residency training (graduate medical education) while meeting all requirements for medical licensure.The Florida Board of Medicine defines the “practice of medicine” as the diagnosis, treatment, operation, or prescription for any human disease, pain, injury, deformity, or other physical or mental condition. Therefore, USF Morsani College of Medicine continues to educate “undifferentiated physicians” to meet state licensure requirements.
Criminal background checks and urine drug screens will be conducted as part of the process of admission, participation, promotion, and/or graduation.
For purposes of this document and unless otherwise defined, the term “candidate” means candidates for admission to the MD program as well as enrolled medical students who are candidates for promotion and graduation.
The University of South Florida is committed to the principles of equitable and accessible education and to providing reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities. The University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine endeavors to provide reasonable accommodations for otherwise qualified individuals with disabilities who apply for admission and are enrolled as medical students.
Candidates with disabilities are encouraged to contact the office of MD Admissions early in the application process who can further direct the candidate on the USF accommodation process.
It is the responsibility of a candidate with a disability, or a candidate who develops a disability, who may require accommodations to meet these technical standards, to self-disclose to Student Accessibility Services and request accommodations once admitted. Steps on how to apply for accommodations can be found here.
Should, despite reasonable accommodation (whether the candidate chooses to use the accommodation or not), a candidate’s existing or acquired disability(ies) interfere with patient or peer safety, or otherwise impede their ability to complete USF MCOM’s educational program and advance to graduation, residency training, or licensure, the candidate may be denied admission or may be separated or dismissed from the program.
Candidates will be responsible for providing or arranging transportation between their residence and locations for assigned clerkships and courses.
A candidate for the MD degree must have abilities and skills in five domains: 1) observation; 2) communication; 3) clinical skills; 4) intellectual-conceptual, integrative, and cognitive skills; and 5) behavioral attributes, social skills, and professional expectations. The candidate must continue to meet these technical standards throughout their enrollment.
Fulfillment of the technical standards for graduation from medical school does not guarantee that a graduate will be able to fulfill the technical requirements of any specific residency program.
Technological compensation can be made for some disabilities in these domains, but a candidate must be able to perform in a reasonably independent manner. The use of a trained intermediary would mean that a candidate’s judgment must be mediated by someone else’s power of selection and observation. Therefore, a trained intermediary cannot be used to assist candidates in accomplishing curricular requirements in the five domains specified above.
Candidates must be able to acquire information from demonstrations and participate in experiments of science, including but not limited to such things as dissection of cadavers; examination of specimens in anatomy, pathology, and neuroanatomy laboratories; and microscopic study of microorganisms and tissues in normal and pathologic states. Candidates must be able to obtain and interpret information through a comprehensive assessment of patients, correctly interpret diagnostic representations of patients’ physiologic data, and accurately evaluate patients’ conditions and responses. They must be able to perform a complete physical examination to integrate findings based on this information and to develop an appropriate diagnostic and treatment plan. These skills require the use of vision, hearing, and touch or the functional equivalent.
Examples
Representative examples of materials/occasions requiring observational / perceptual abilities beginning in years 1 and 2 include, but are not limited to: books, diagrams, discussions, physiologic and pharmacological demonstrations, microbiologic cultures, gross and microscopic studies of organisms and tissues, chemical reactions and representations, photographs, x-rays, cadaver dissections, live human case presentations, and patient interviews.
Examples from year 3 and 4 include but are not limited to: physical exams; rectal and pelvic exams; examinations with a stethoscope, otoscope, fundoscope, sphygmomanometer, and reflex hammer; verbal communication and non-verbal cues (as in taking a patient's history or working with a medical team); live and televised surgical procedures; childbirth; x-rays, MRIs, and other diagnostic findings; online computer searches and virtual clinical cases.