ABR Updating OLA Process for NMP Diplomates in 2025
By Jennifer Stickel, PhD, ABR Trustee
2024;17(6):8
In 2019, the ABR implemented Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA) as Part 3 of the four-part Continuing Certification (CC, formerly MOC) program. For medical physicists, the OLA program began in January 2020 and thus is about to complete its fifth year.
Medical physicist diplomates are required to answer 52 questions annually for each certificate they hold. For diplomates specializing in therapeutic medical physics (TMP) and diagnostic medical physics (DMP), OLA delivers 104 questions per year (two each week) and permits up to 10 declines per year per certificate. All questions can be “banked” for up to four weeks from the time they are delivered to the diplomate.
For nuclear medical physics (NMP) diplomates, however, OLA delivers only one question per week. This allows diplomates to meet the goal of 52 questions per year but does not permit declines. The requirement for reliable statistics limits the number of questions that can be deployed; before a question can contribute to a diplomate’s cumulative score, it must have been answered by 50 participants and rated by at least 10 question raters. Given the comparatively small number of NMP physicists enrolled in OLA, deploying a larger number of questions would lead to unacceptable delays in the calculation of cumulative scores.
This puts NMP diplomates at a disadvantage in two ways. Receiving only one question per week means they will fail to meet the annual question goal if banked questions are not answered in the same calendar year in which they are delivered. In addition, NMP diplomates don’t have the same opportunity as other diplomates to decline questions on topics that are not relevant to their clinical practice.
Now that OLA has been in use for five years, we have a robust database of available questions. This will enable the ABR to implement a few changes to the NMP OLA experience in 2025. First, NMP diplomates will have the opportunity to decline up to five questions per year. To ensure that the 52 question per year goal is still possible, when a question is declined, the NMP diplomate will immediately receive a replacement question. In addition, although questions will continue to have a four-week shelf life, diplomates can use the full four weeks even if it extends into a new calendar year. The diplomate will receive credit in the appropriate year to ensure that the annual goal is met.
These updates will improve the OLA experience for all NMP diplomates while still making it possible for them to meet their Part 3 Continuing Certification requirements.
