From the President: New ABR Vision Statement Highlights Aspirational Foundation
By ABR President Cheri L. Canon, MD; ABR President-elect John A. Kaufman, MD, MS; and ABR Governor Karen Ragland Cole, MD, MBA
December 2025;18(6):2
The ABR provides value to patients and the public by presenting a credential based on high standards related to extensive specialty training and subsequent rigorous assessment of knowledge across a broad domain. There is a parallel benefit to the diplomates who, by meeting the standards to obtain and maintain certification (including longitudinal assessment), distinguish themselves as having expertise that sets them apart from others.
The ABR’s mission is to certify that our diplomates demonstrate the requisite knowledge, skill, and understanding of their disciplines to the benefit of patients.
Several discussions among the Board of Governors throughout 2025 broadly focused on “why” the ABR exists and functions as it does. In addition to aligning our operations and programs to serve the mission and balancing the rigor and credibility of the certification process with reasonable requirements of the diplomates, our purpose is based on an aspirational foundation. This shared understanding among the board members led to the development, completed in October, of a vision statement:
The ABR positively impacts the lives of all patients as the foremost trusted certifying body assuring the highest standards of specialty expertise and professionalism in the radiological sciences.
Like other professional organizations in medical physics, radiology, and radiation oncology, the ABR relies on the generous contributions of time and expertise from thousands of volunteer subject matter experts. However, the ABR differs from most professional societies in that we focus on initial and ongoing certification and do not directly provide continuing medical education (CME). We are pleased that tens of thousands of diplomates find benefit in the formative (learning) functions of Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA), but our focus is on assessment and improvement in practice. Diplomates have broad flexibility to choose the subject and source of their CME hours as part of the Continuing Certification process, allowing for efficient and impactful lifelong learning.
The ABR values the partnership we share with our candidates and diplomates to serve the public and the profession through a commitment to the pursuit of high-quality care. We also value the dedication of our volunteers. Without their selfless contributions, we could not meet our mission or vision.
