Opportunities Popping Up Everywhere for ABR Stakeholders
By Desiree E. Morgan, MD, ABR Governor
2025;18(4):1
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
I really like this quote — it’s all about action. At the ABR, some opportunities are known commodities, like volunteering for a question-writing committee for one of our four disciplines. In the pandemic, the “opportunity” to revamp testing to a remote administration took much energy on the part of volunteers and ABR staff. And maybe we weren’t so excited about executing that tremendous pivot, but the processes employed today because of that “opportunity” have enabled a more personalized testing environment for our candidates and diplomates, and more versatility for our volunteers. From creating the Image Quality Committee, providing more paths to certification, and changing the preparation of trainees to heeding the call to volunteer for the ABR at different career junctures, this issue of The Beam is all about opportunities. Enjoy!
In this issue …
ABR Executive Director Brent Wagner, MD, MBA, discusses the essential role of volunteers and staff in developing and maintaining the relevance and robustness of the Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA) platform.
ABR Trustee Daniel C. Davis, MD; Governor Stephen F. Simoneaux, MD; Trustee Brian J. Davis, MD, PhD; Associate Director of Exam Services Lydia Warg; and Director of IT Scott Segal describe how the ABR Image Quality Committee sets standards for image submission and editing to ensure the highest quality for images used on ABR assessments.
ABR Governor Desiree E. Morgan, MD; ABR Trustee Kate Maturen, MD, MS; and future ABR Trustee Michelle Miller-Thomas, MD, discuss how programs can update their training to prepare residents for the upcoming new DR Oral Exam, how the ABR is engaging with stakeholders through this transition, and call for volunteers to be oral examiners.
ABR Board of Trustees Chair Matthew B. Podgorsak, PhD; ABR Associate Executive Director for Medical Physics Geoffrey S. Ibbott, PhD; ABR Trustees Kalpana M. Kanal, PhD, and Jennifer Stickel, PhD; and future ABR Trustee Sameer Tipnis, PhD, describe the ABR’s alternate pathway to board certification for medical physicists and physicians trained in foreign countries.
ABR Communications Manager Rodney Campbell talks with interventional radiologist Riddhi Borse, MD, about how she chose her specialty and her experience volunteering with the ABR’s IR Initial Certification Advisory Committee.
Arti Gupta, MD, enjoys giving back to her field by using her three decades of experience as a diagnostic radiologist and educator to inform her question writing for the ABR DR Qualifying (Core) Exam.
After 17 years as an ABR volunteer on Continuing Certification committees, Will Breeden, MS, has switched to Initial Certification, now writing oral exam questions for nuclear medical physicists.
Last month, several ABR Trustees and one associate executive director received awards. Congratulations are in order to:
- ABR Trustee Catheryn Yashar, MD, was voted president-elect by the membership of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
- ABR Associate Executive Director for Medical Physics Geoffrey Ibbott, PhD, was awarded the William D. Coolidge Gold Medal by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).
- ABR Trustee Kalpana Kanal, PhD, was named the recipient of the AAPM’s Edith Quimby Lifetime Achievement Award.
- ABR Trustee Jennifer Stickel, PhD, was named an AAPM fellow.
