IMG
Abbreviation with 2 meanings
| Stands for | International medical graduate |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 2 |
| Categories | Medical, Technology & Computing |
IMG has two meanings. It stands for International medical graduate (medical specialty) or Disk image file (file format).
Meanings of IMG at a glance
| # | IMG stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | International medical graduate | Medical › Medical Specialty |
| 2 | Disk image file | Technology & Computing › File Format |
1. International medical graduate
Medical · Medical Specialty Abbreviations
Physician who graduated from a medical school outside the United States and Canada and seeks to train or practice there. IMGs make up roughly a quarter of US physicians and must pass USMLE exams and obtain ECFMG certification before entering residency.
Example: Program accepts IMG applicants with ECFMG certification and US clinical experience.
IMGs include both foreign nationals and US citizens who studied abroad, for example in the Caribbean. Many train on J-1 or H-1B visas, and the Conrad 30 program waives the J-1 home-residence requirement for physicians who serve underserved areas. In digital photo file names IMG simply means image.
2. Disk image file
Technology & Computing · File Format Abbreviations
Raw, sector-by-sector image of a disk, memory card or floppy, used to distribute operating systems for single-board computers and to back up or clone entire drives.
Example: Flash the Raspberry Pi OS IMG to the microSD card with Raspberry Pi Imager.
An IMG file contains no special header, so it can represent any file system, from FAT to ext4. Images are often distributed compressed, as .img.xz or .img.zip. Writing an IMG to the wrong drive overwrites it entirely, so imaging tools ask for confirmation. Older Mac disk images and some floppy-image formats also used the .img extension.
Related abbreviations
More medical specialty abbreviations
- Heme/Onc – Hematology and oncology
- HPM – Hospice and palliative medicine
- ID – Infectious diseases
- IM – Internal medicine
- IR – Interventional radiology
- Med-Peds – Internal medicine-pediatrics
- MFM – Maternal-fetal medicine
- Nephro – Nephrology
See all 47 medical specialty abbreviations →
More file format abbreviations
- HEIF – High Efficiency Image File Format
- HEVC – High Efficiency Video Coding
- ICO – Icon file
- ICS – iCalendar file
- INI – Initialization file
- IPA – iOS App Store Package
- ISO – ISO disc image
- JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group
See all 125 file format abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not medical advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.