The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), founded in 1915, is a United States non-profit which develops and manages assessments of student physicians.

[20][21] Beginning mid-March 2020, testing centers operated by Prometric were closed based on local health and safety guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prometric center administrations for NBME-developed assessments such as USMLE, Health Professionals, and NBME Subject Examinations were suspended completely for several months.

[24][25] Prometric resumed test administration for "essential services" clients at reduced capacity, which included NBME assessments, in May 2020.

The medical community criticized Prometric for the mishandling of testing centers operations during the pandemic, creating "chaos", further "disadvantages", "harm", "bias" and "inequity".

[22][23] Also in 2020, the medical community criticized NBME's refusal to accelerate USMLE Step 1 score reporting to pass/fail before 2022 and called for an emergency committee (that included student representatives) who could address these issues in a timely manner without financial or other conflicts of interest.