Meeting Continuing Certification Requirements: Assessment Timeline
By Matthew B. Podgorsak, PhD, ABR Board of Trustees Chair; Jennifer Stickel, PhD, Future ABR Trustee; Kalpana M. Kanal, PhD, and Robert A. Pooley, PhD, ABR Trustees; and Geoffrey S. Ibbott, PhD, ABR Associate Executive Director for Medical Physics
2024;17(4):7
The mission of the ABR is to ”certify that our diplomates demonstrate the requisite knowledge, skill, and understanding of their disciplines to the benefit of patients.” The ABR assesses whether diplomates who gained initial certification in 2002 or later maintain their knowledge and skills throughout their careers with the administration of the Continuing Certification (CC) program. Diplomates certified before 2002 hold lifetime certificates that do not need to be maintained, although some lifetime certificate holders have voluntarily entered the CC program. In this article, we will explain the process and timeline followed by the ABR to evaluate if a diplomate has met their CC requirements.
Participation guidelines for the CC program can be found here. A diplomate must meet four parts to maintain their certificate: (1) professionalism and professional standing; (2) lifelong learning; (3) assessment of knowledge, judgment, and skill; and (4) improvement in medical practice.
Diplomates no longer must attest to meeting the requirements for Parts 1, 2, and 4 annually. However, the ABR conducts random audits during which documentation is requested from the diplomate to provide evidence that the requirements have been met. It is a good idea to periodically review one’s professional activities and associated documentation to ensure compliance with these requirements.
Several years ago, the ABR implemented Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA) for Part 3 of the CC program. This meets the recent American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) mandate that Member Boards such as the ABR assess a diplomate’s knowledge, judgment, and skill at least every five years. The ABR offers diplomates two options to fulfill the Part 3 requirement. The first is comparing their OLA cumulative score to their passing standard during the last year of a five-year cycle. The end of a diplomate’s five-year cycle is indicated on their OLA dashboard as the Part 3 deadline, and a diplomate can pass the Part 3 component by being above their passing standard at any time during that final year. The second option is for a diplomate to take and pass a Continuing Certification Exam (CCE) during the fourth or fifth year of their Part 3 cycle.
To efficiently administer the Part 3 assessment for the thousands of diplomates across all disciplines who are maintaining their certificates, the ABR Board of Governors decided to split the initial cohort into groups of diplomates with assigned deadlines between December 31, 2024, and December 31, 2028. This way, a smaller and more consistent number of diplomates will be assessed annually. It is therefore possible for diplomates who are in the same department to have different Part 3 deadlines spread across the 2024-2028 timeframe.
If a diplomate does not meet the Part 3 requirement at the end of their five-year cycle or does not meet the requirements for Parts 1, 2, and 4 at the conclusion of an audit, their certification status within the public reporting database will be changed to ”inactive.” Further details can be found in the Continuing Certification FAQs.
