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Volunteer Proves Her Work Can Bring Change
Janice Newsome, MD, has advice for anyone who wants to help the ABR improve its Initial or Continuing Certification programs: Become a volunteer and make changes from the inside. She’s been one for years and knows it makes a difference. “Volunteerism is the engine for everything that we think is worthwhile about medicine and medical…
Didn’t Match? Use the Extra Year to Invest in Yourself
By Courtney Wing Every March, medical students across the nation wake up a little more tachycardic than usual, but this time, it’s not from our energy drinks or an impending nine-hour exam. It’s the day the National Resident Matching Program shares our fate with us. For some of us, the news contains the best words…
Transition Year Complete, New Resident Ready for Reading Room
After a year of learning about several medical specialties during his transition year, Logan Ryals, MD, is relieved to start his residency and concentrate on career goals. While his experience, mostly with internal medicine and surgery, at Ascension Saint Joseph Hospital in the Chicago area was valuable, it was just a warm-up for what Dr….
Volunteer Plays Big Role in Small Subspecialty
With more than 1,300 volunteers on its dozens of committees, the ABR is fortunate to have subject matter experts who are eager to share their knowledge and limited spare time to keep board certification fair and relevant. Volunteers from smaller subspecialties can be hard to find. That’s what makes physicians like Caitlin Connolly, MD, especially…
Standard Setting Produces Fair Results on Initial Certification Exams
By Ben Babcock When the ABR administers Initial Certification exams, some people pass and others don’t. How does the ABR decide where to draw the line between a passing and failing performance? The answer is a psychometric process called standard setting. ABR Initial Certification exams use a criterion-referenced standard setting process (Angoff) that involves a…
International Medical Graduate Credits Mentor for Her Second Chance
Sara Lami, MD, MPH, moved to the United States in 2014 to start her radiology career as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. After almost a year, she became discouraged and returned to her native Iran. “I was completely lost,” said Dr. Lami, who went home in April 2015 to think about…
