From the Board of Governors: DR Oral Certifying Exam Timing Changes to Start in 2028
By ABR Governor James C. Anderson, MD; ABR Governor Desiree E. Morgan, MD; and ABR Executive Director Brent Wagner, MD, MBA
December 2025;18(6):3
In November, the ABR announced that the timing of the Diagnostic Radiology (DR) Certifying Exam administration will change starting with the DR residency class of 2028 to allow candidates to sit for the exam at the end of the fourth year of residency (June 2028). The new timing (fourth year of residency) will also apply to residents in interventional radiology/diagnostic radiology (IR/DR) who anticipate completing their training in June 2029. This represents the first opportunity for these classes to take the exam; residents have the option to defer to future administrations within the standard six-year eligibility period. The exams will be administered twice annually (June and in the fall).
The change was prompted by three considerations that surfaced after the announcement, in the spring of 2023, that the ABR was returning to the oral exam after a 15-year hiatus. First, the ABR has heard from many stakeholders that the proposed timing (early in the calendar year following completion of residency for the DR class of 2027) was not optimal, especially in relationship to fellowship training. Second, the ABR governing board decided, based on extensive input from the IR community (and others), to require the DR Oral Certifying Exam as part of IR/DR certification beginning with the IR/DR residency class of 2029. Last, the ACGME has introduced more flexibility into the IR/DR curriculum, allowing more DR rotations later in the residency and more IR rotations earlier in the residency.
As in our past processes regarding exam design and timing, we sought input from leadership within both DR and IR, including program director and department chair organizations, as well as the ACGME Review Committee. These external stakeholders, and internal discussions within the ABR governing board, considered the following: possible impacts on training programs; potential preparation time for candidates; the time interval between relevant training and the exam; and parity and psychometric validity for DR and IR candidates taking the same (DR) oral exam. The last point supports the “equivalence” of the exam requirement for both groups of candidates, whether they are pursuing certification in DR or IR/DR.
The considerations above translate into two related goals:
1. The ABR should offer the oral exam as close as possible to DR training.
2. The ABR should offer the oral exam to a cohort of DR and IR/DR candidates (with a standardized question set and scoring threshold across both groups).
This decision does not alter the previously announced timing for DR residents who complete training in 2027. Their first opportunity will be in the first half of the calendar year following residency completion (2028). It also does not change the Qualifying (Core) Exam dates in June 2027 (and a second opportunity in November) for the DR class of 2028 and the IR/DR class of 2029.
In the future steady state, the first opportunity for the Qualifying (Core) Exam will be in (approximately) September of the fourth residency year to avoid a timing conflict with the oral exam. A second opportunity for the Qualifying (Core) Exam will be offered in March of the fourth residency year. (See the ABR website for more details.)
The ABR is grateful to program directors, department chairs, and other leaders who offered their thoughts and perspectives. Recognizing that there are unpredictable and variable consequences for departments, institutions, and individuals, we have sought to find the best exam timing fit for flexibility and fairness for the candidates and their training programs.
