American Board of Medical Specialties
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for 24 of the 26 approved medical specialty boards in the United States. It is the largest voluntary-based physician specialty certification organization in the United States with over 750,000 US physicians having achieved certification by one or more of its 24 medical specialty boards (officially referred to as the "Member Boards" (see below). These Member Boards certify specialists in over 145 specialties and subspecialties.
The ABMS was established in 1933. It works closely with the Member Boards to set educational and professional standards for the evaluation and certification of physician specialists. The Member Boards certify specialists in numerous specialties and subspecialties through a comprehensive process involving educational requirements, professional peer evaluation and examination. ABMS also works in collaboration with other professional medical organizations and agencies to set rigorous standards for graduate medical school education and accreditation of residency and training programs. The ABMS is governed by a Board of Directors that includes a representative of each of the 24 Member Boards, 3 Public Members, its officers (Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary-Treasurer) and its President/CEO.
The leadership at each Member Board is made up of certified specialists in the particular field represented by that Board. Board members may include teachers in the specialty, those with specialized training or skills in the specialty or subspecialties represented by the Board, and from among those who have demonstrated the expertise, motivation and ability to assist in evaluating candidates who wish to become Board Certified.
The ABMS is currently led by Dr. Kevin B. Weiss as its President and Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. John B. McCabe is the current Chair of the Board of Directors.
History
The concept of a specialty board was first proposed in 1908 by Dr. Derrick T. Vail in his presidential address to the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology. The purpose of which being, to define specialty qualifications, to supervise examinations that test the preparation of those who desire to practice, and to issue credentials that would assure the public of the specialist's qualifications. Up until that time, there was no way to confirm that a physician claiming to be a specialist was indeed qualified. The idea was well-received, and soon other areas of medicine began forming their own Boards.At a June 1933 conference, the active specialty Boards to date (Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology, Dermatology and Obstetrics and Gynecology), along with the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Federation of State Medical Boards, the American Medical Association, the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals, and the National Board of Medical Examiners, agreed to create the Advisory Board for Medical Specialties to oversee the examination and certification of specialties as conducted by the specialty Boards. From 1933 to 1970, the Advisory Board operated as a federation of individual specialty Boards. In 1970, the membership voted to reorganize the Advisory Board as the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) as it is known today. http://www.abms.org
Lifetime Certification
On November 30, 2009, James A. Stockman, III, MD, president of the American Board of Pediatrics (a "Member Board" of the ABMS), admitted under oath at a North Carolina Medical Board hearing that 41% of ABMS boarded physicians are Board Certified for life. http://www.ncmedboard.orgMany leaders in the medical field found this statistic and Dr. Stockman's testimony to be a great surprise --- that 41% of ABMS Board Certified physicians (the "Gold Standard" in Board Certification), are not required to be re-certified every several years like its competitors (AOA and ABPS) require.
The ABMS Maintenance of Certification® Program
In 2000, the 24 Member Boards of ABMS agreed to evolve their recertification programs into one of continuous professional development – the ABMS Maintenance of Certification® (ABMS MOC®) program.Through a program of lifelong learning and ongoing self-assessment, Board Certified physicians demonstrate their rigorous commitment to achieving quality clinical outcomes for patients in a responsive, patient-focused setting.
The ABMS MOC program evaluates the continuing competence of a physician in the specialty in which s/he was certified initially, and documents that the specialist is up-to-date on recent advances in his/her specialty and maintains the necessary competencies to provide quality care.
The ABMS MOC program includes six (6) core competencies important for all specialists to possess and maintain throughout their professional careers. These were developed by ABMS in partnership with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME):
1. Professionalism – Demonstrate a commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities, adherence to ethical principles and sensitivity to diverse patient populations.
2. Patient Care and Procedural Skills – Provide care that is compassionate, appropriate and effective treatment for health problems and to promote health.
3. Medical Knowledge – Demonstrate knowledge about established and evolving biomedical, clinical and cognate sciences and their application in patient care.
4. Practice-based Learning and Improvement – Able to investigate and evaluate their patient care practices; appraise and assimilate scientific evidence and improve their practice of medicine.
5. Interpersonal and Communication Skills – Demonstrate skills that result in effective information exchange and teaming with patients, their families and professional associates (e.g., fostering a therapeutic relationship that is ethically sound; uses effective listening skills with non-verbal and verbal communication; working as both a team member and, at times, as a leader).
6. Systems-based Practice – Demonstrate awareness of, and responsibility to, larger context and systems of health care. Be able to call on system resources to provide optimal care (e.g., coordinating care across sites or serving as the primary case manager when care involves multiple specialties, professions or sites).
The six (6) core competencies are incorporated into four (4) component categories, which are adopted by all ABMS Member Boards as the model designed to keep certification continuous:
Part I: Licensure and Professional Standing – Medical specialists must hold a valid, unrestricted medical license in at least one (1) state or jurisdiction in the United States, its territories or Canada.
Part II: Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment – Specialists participate in educational and self-assessment programs that meet specialty-specific standards that are set by their Member Board.
Part III: Cognitive Expertise – Specialists demonstrate, through formalized examination, that they have the fundamental, practice-related and practice environment-related knowledge to provide quality care in their specialty.
Part IV: Practice Performance Assessment – Specialists are evaluated in their clinical practice according to specialty-specific standards for patient care. They are asked to demonstrate that they can assess the quality of care they provide compared to peers and national benchmarks, and then apply the best evidence or consensus recommendations to improve that care using follow-up assessments.
Each of the 24 Member Boards of ABMS adopted the standards outlined in the ABMS MOC program by launching a version that was tailored to the needs of their specialties and subspecialties, and all 24 Member Boards now have their MOC programs well underway. As of 2011, over 300,000 physicians are participating in at least one of these programs.
Physicians benefit from participating in the ABMS MOC program because they receive focused learning based on individual practice needs, increase efficiency and reduce malpractice premiums, as well as the need for duplicate assessments of credentials among other benefits.
Patients experience fewer medical errors, better communication and quality clinical outcomes when they choose a Board Certified physician. Medical specialists who participate in the ABMS MOC program use the most current evidence-based guidelines and standards in their specialty, and are widely recognized as leaders in the national movement for health care quality.
The ABMS MOC program is increasingly being recognized by many important external stakeholders. Hospitals are beginning to seek out and, in some cases, require ABMS MOC program participation for ongoing credentialing. Health plans are recognizing ABMS MOC program activities and are working with various ABMS Member Boards to signal its value. A provision in the health care reform measure passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 and signed into law by President Barack Obama includes participation in the ABMS MOC program as an option for the nation’s physicians to fulfill requirements of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS). The bill enhances PQRS by opening up an additional pathway for physician participation in quality reporting starting in 2011, and provides an increased incentive payment beyond the PQRS bonus to physicians who choose to voluntarily participate. It represents the first time the MOC program is an option within the Federal accountability framework.
Patients can find out if a physician is Board Certified by an ABMS Member Board by calling toll-free 1-866-ASK-ABMS. In 2011, ABMS launched www.CertificationMatters.org as an online public education tool to help consumers check for free if their doctor is Board Certified by an ABMS Member Board, what Board Certification means and why it's important to quality health care, and how they benefit from their doctor's Board Certification.
Member Boards
Year approved as an ABMS Member Board in parentheses.- American Board of Allergy and Immunology (1971)
- American Board of Anesthesiology (1941)
- American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery (1949)
- American Board of DermatologyAmerican Board of DermatologyThe American Board of Dermatology , located in Detroit, MI, certifies physicians in dermatology, dermatopathology and pediatric dermatology. Certified physicians are known as diplomates and may represent themselves to the public as “board-certified”. Since its inception in 1932, the ABD has...
(ABMS Founding Member) - American Board of Emergency MedicineAmerican Board of Emergency MedicineThe American Board of Emergency Medicine is an organization that provides board certification in the medical specialty of emergency medicine to qualified physicians....
(1979) - American Board of Family MedicineAmerican Board of Family MedicineThe American Board of Family Medicine is a non-profit, independent medical association of American physicians who practice in family medicine and its sub-specialties...
(1969) - American Board of Internal MedicineAmerican Board of Internal MedicineThe American Board of Internal Medicine is a non-profit, independent physician evaluation organization committed to continuously improving the profession for the public good by certifying physicians who practice internal medicine and its sub-specialties...
(1936) - American Board of Medical Genetics (1991)
- American Board of Neurological Surgery (1940)
- American Board of Nuclear MedicineAmerican Board of Nuclear MedicineThe American Board of Nuclear Medicine certifies physicians as specialists in the practice of nuclear medicine. Diplomates of the ABNM are called nuclear medicine physicians...
(1971) - American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABMS Founding Member)
- American Board of OphthalmologyAmerican Board of OphthalmologyThe American Board of Ophthalmology is an independent, non-profit organization responsible for certifying ophthalmologists in the United States of America. Founded in 1916, the ABO was the first American Board established to certify medical specialists.The ABO is the founding member of the...
(ABMS Founding Member) - American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (1935)
- American Board of OtolaryngologyAmerican Board of OtolaryngologyThe American Board of Otolaryngology, located in Houston, Texas, is an non-profit corporation that has set the mission of ensuring professional standards with certificates and memberships, and have offered training in the fields of head neck surgery to professionals since 1924.A five years of...
(ABMS Founding Member) - American Board of Pathology (1936)
- American Board of Pediatrics (1935)
- American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (1947)
- American Board of Plastic SurgeryAmerican Board of Plastic SurgeryThe American Board of Plastic Surgery, Inc. was organized as a subsidiary of the American Board of Surgery in 1938. The American Board of Plastic Surgery, Inc. was given the status of a major specialty board in 1941...
(1941) - American Board of Preventive MedicineAmerican Board of Preventive MedicineThe American Board of Preventive Medicine is the organization that issues "certificates of special knowledge" in the specialty of Preventive Medicine. These certificates are what is referred to in the United States as "Board Certification," and is generally recognized as verification of a...
(1949) - American Board of Psychiatry and NeurologyAmerican Board of Psychiatry and NeurologyThe American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation that was founded in 1934 following conferences of committees appointed by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Neurological Association, and the then Section on Nervous and Mental Diseases of the American...
(1935) - American Board of RadiologyAmerican Board of RadiologyEstablished in 1934, the American Board of Radiology is a nonprofit physician-led organization. It oversees the certification and ongoing professional development of specialists in Diagnostic Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Medical Physics....
(1935) - American Board of SurgeryAmerican Board of SurgeryThe American Board of Surgery is an independent, non-profit organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania founded for the purpose of certifying surgeons who have met a defined standard of education, training and knowledge...
(1937) - American Board of Thoracic Surgery (1971)
- American Board of Urology (1935)