Summer’s the Time to Prepare for What’s Coming
By Desiree E. Morgan, MD, ABR Governor
2025;18(3):1
Summer is upon us, and it is a time when our family schedules tend to be more relaxed and easy. For anyone working in an academic medical center, though, we are anything but relaxed and easy, professionally speaking. This season marks the turnover of trainees and their advancement to the next level. As part of the readiness to greet the new academic year, we spend time looking under the hood, so to speak, at the educational program’s procedures and processes. To me, this issue of The Beam feels similar to that readiness renewal mode, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about some of the ABR’s processes as you anticipate the approach of summer.
In this issue …
ABR Secretary-Treasurer Marina I. Feldman, MD, MBA, and ABR Executive Director Brent Wagner, MD, describe how the ABR Board of Governors fulfill their “duty of care” to serve as stewards of the fees collected that support board certification programs and processes.
ABR President Cheri L. Canon, MD, and ABR President-elect John A. Kaufman, MD, MS, describe the details of last month’s announcement that international medical graduates (IMGs) can now combine training from two institutions to fulfill the four years required for the IMG Alternate Pathway.
The ABR Associate Executive Directors and the Board of Trustees Chair discuss the roadmap the ABR used to successfully develop and implement a remote exam platform in response to the pandemic in 2020 and our continued commitment to maintaining the consistency, validity, and security of our exams while striving to improve the candidate experience.
ABR Associate Executive Director Mary S. Newell, MD; ABR Trustee Kate Maturen, MD, MS; and ABR Governors Desiree E. Morgan, MD, and Stephen F. Simoneaux, MD, answer common questions about the new DR Oral Exam.
ABR Associate Executive Director for Interventional Radiology James B. Spies, MD, MPH, explains how the International Medical Graduate (IMG) Alternate Pathway for IR/DR candidates differs from that for diagnostic radiology candidates, and describes the new two-year IR IMG pathway.
ABR Trustee Kalpana M. Kanal, PhD; ABR Associate Director of Psychometrics Ben Babcock, PhD; ABR Associate Executive Director for Medial Physics Geoffrey S. Ibbott, PhD; and ABR Board of Trustees Chair Matthew B. Podgorsak, PhD, present a subset of questions and answers from a recent presentation at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) about Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA) scoring.
Future diagnostic radiology resident Garrett Barfoot, MD, describes the wide range of emotions he experienced on Match Day this year.
Interventional radiologist Divya Kumari, MD, uses her experience teaching in a diagnostic radiology department and doing clinical work at a hospital with a diverse population to inform her question writing for ABR exams.
ABR Communications Manager Rodney Campbell spoke to radiation oncologist Jamie Cesaretti, MD, about the importance of optimism in his career and in his work as a long-time question writer and oral examiner for the ABR.
Continuing Certification Update
ABR Communications Director David Laszakovits, MBA, and ABR Associate Executive Director for Diagnostic Radiology Mary S. Newell, MD, describe the formative element of Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA).
