AAMC Reporter: May 2007

Applicant Criminal Background Check System Moves Forward

The AAMC recently selected a vendor to administer its new system of criminal background checks for applicants accepted to medical school. Pennsylvania firm Certiphi Screening, Inc., will implement the check system. Beginning in June, the system will be tested among the 2008 student entering classes of 10 medical schools.

"We had a number of important criteria for the vendor we chose: quality of their data, timeliness of reporting, expertise regarding the legal ramifications of this process, and knowledge of the differences between admissions processes and employment processes," said Stephen Fitzpatrick, program director for the AAMC's American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS), which will oversee the system.

Last summer, the AAMC Executive Council—spurred by state governments and academic medical institutions increasingly considering or implementing various measures requiring such checks—voted to develop an AAMC-administered national check system.

Because Certiphi will also contract directly with individual institutions, schools will be able to tailor the background check process to local laws and regulations. The AAMC will never receive any criminal background information for specific applicants.

According to Robert Sabalis, AAMC associate vice president for student affairs and programs, the criminal background check system will require the AAMC to make several adjustments, including changes in its application questionnaire.

"The criminal background check system will be an AAMC system for all member schools, even those that are not AMCAS participants," Sabalis said. "But given that AMCAS is used by most medical schools, AMCAS is also rewriting its questions about applicants' reporting of any criminal problems they may have had in the past."

AMCAS currently only asks a single question about past felony convictions, and it is not followed up with any check. The revised questions will cover both felony and misdemeanor convictions, and will advise applicants that the AAMC recommends all member medical schools complete a criminal background check to verify the self-report data. The national system will also incorporate some state-specific requirements.

"Some states mandate specific checks by state agencies, largely for problems like elder abuse and child abuse," said Sabalis. "We will accommodate state requirements for specific functions to be performed through the state system."

One committee that is helping oversee the process—the Criminal Background Check Advisory Committee—met as recently as March. With representation from a broad range of medical schools, its charge is to advise the AAMC on the system to be implemented. In addition to this panel, the AAMC's Group on Student Affairs Committee on Admissions is charged with advising schools on how to assess the data generated by criminal background checks once it is acquired. The committee has drafted a document that addresses key issues such as how to store, review, and interpret the data; how to communicate with applicants about the school's requirements; and how to make decisions based on the information provided.

Schools utilizing criminal background check information for the first time (about 25 percent of medical schools already conduct some form of criminal background check) will have to grapple with several challenges.

"For example, schools will have to decide who reviews this material, who is empowered to make decisions about it, how to define what is a serious offense, and how to word their documents about this admissions requirement, such as in letters, Web sites, and academic bulletins," Sabalis said.

Privacy is also a critical issue.

"While the data reported through a criminal background check will be publicly available data that any citizen could get by inquiring at a county courthouse, we want to make sure that these data are handled appropriately by those school personnel with a legitimate need to know," Sabalis said.

"We don't want people's reputations besmirched for a mistake that might have happened 10 years ago, and cause them harm in the present."

If the pilot test goes well, the general release of a comprehensive criminal background check system for all interested schools is expected by mid-2008, for applicants to the 2009 entering class.

"The pilot is designed to confirm the viability of our new process," Fitzpatrick said. "These 10 schools will help us to ensure that the system provides quality reports in a timely manner, and that the needs communicated by our members are truly addressed by this solution, so that any adjustments can be made in advance of the system's release to all medical schools."

—Gina Shaw, special to the Reporter; Scott Harris contributed to this report

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