ABR Application of ABMS Standards in Continuing Certification Program Enhances Value
By Brent Wagner, MD, MBA, ABR Executive Director, and Mary S. Newell, MD, ABR Associate Executive Director for Diagnostic Radiology
2025;18(5):3
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) represents 24 certifying Member Boards (including the ABR) and establishes an overall framework of standards for physicians and other specialists. These standards apply to both Initial Certification and Continuing Certification (CC), but the specific elements for each specialty are established and administered by the individual boards.
The current ABMS Continuing Certification Standards became effective in January 2024 after extensive development, which incorporated changes prompted by stakeholder input to the Vision for the Future Commission:
In early 2018, the Vision Initiative Planning Committee established the Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future Commission (Commission), an independent body of 27 individuals who represented diverse stakeholders, including practicing physicians, health care leadership, academic medicine, Continuing Medical Education (CME) professionals, group medical practices, state and national medical associations, ABMS Board executives, specialty societies, and health advocacy groups representing patients, families and the public at large.
The full report is available at Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future – Commission Final Report.
The report includes a description of the most important goal of the ABR’s CC program: the provision “of a specialty-based credential that would be of value to diplomates and to multiple stakeholders, including patients, families, the public and health care institutions.” The ABR believes the value derived from the program depends on the degree of relevance to professional practice, reasonableness in the required cost and effort, and credibility as a valid credential as viewed by the other stakeholders (especially patients and families).
The standards include an emphasis on physician licensure and require that the individual boards have specified policies and procedures to track and respond to disciplinary actions taken by state medical boards. Although rare, such actions may reflect behavior that is outside of professional norms for unrestricted practice and certification.
For almost all ABR diplomates, the most tangible element of the ABR’s CC program is Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA). This corresponds to several elements of the standards, including the requirement to “assess whether diplomates have the knowledge, clinical judgment, and skills to practice safely and effectively in the specialty. Member Boards must offer assessment options that have a formative emphasis and that assist diplomates in learning key clinical advances in the specialty.” OLA also satisfies the requirements for a summative assessment (i.e., a score measured against a psychometrically valid standard) that is “consequential” (i.e., could result in loss of certification).
The ABR actively considers improvements to its certification programs, including Continuing Certification, to be not only consistent with the ABMS standards but also supportive of enhanced value for diplomates and the public.
