News
Discover inspiring stories from our volunteers, candidates, and community, and stay up to date with important news and announcements on exams, policies, and more.
Awardee: Humanism a Necessity in Medicine
Brooke Burkins, MS, recently earned the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Gold Humanism Honor Society Award. This peer-nominated award is given to someone who is humanistic, compassionate, and an advocate for people facing diverse barriers in healthcare. Medical students, residents, and physician leaders are inducted into this honor society to serve as role models for the…
LGBTQIA+ Community Concerned About All Marginalized Populations
By Toni Marie Roth, MS If you had told me a few years ago that I would be writing a blog for the ABR regarding my upcoming AAPM presentation on “The Intersection of Race and LGBTQIA+,” I would not have known how to respond. As a proud Puerto Rican, culturally Jewish person who identifies as…
Radiation was a Beam of Hope for ABR Employee
Being 6-foot-5 and towering over most other people is a dream for many Americans. For ABR Software Developer Casey Baker, it was a warning sign. Baker grew an unlikely four inches between ages 21 and 28. He also experienced chronic fatigue and decreased energy, prompting him to seek a medical opinion in January 2016. What…
First-Time Oral Examiners Make Easy Move to Remote Platform
First-time ABR examiners this spring only experienced in-person oral exams in Louisville or Tucson as candidates. Although their knowledge of the old process is limited, they see many advantages in using the remote format. We reached out to five new examiners to get their thoughts on the platform: Joseph Erinjeri, MD (interventional radiology); Sarah Milgrom,…
IR/DR IC Advisory Committee Ready to Improve Candidate Experience
Eleven enthusiastic and knowledgeable medical professionals have joined our first interventional radiology/diagnostic radiology initial certification advisory committee. They bring unique perspectives and goals to their new volunteer positions. Virginia Commonwealth University Assistant Professor Christopher Bailey, DO, has been working as a Society for Interventional Radiology Early Career Section liaison to the ABR in discussions about remote computer-based…
Newly Scorable Questions Can Affect OLA Individual Performances
Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA) current cumulative scores are updated every Monday for diplomates who have answered at least 52 scorable questions. The current cumulative score can change, even for participants who haven’t recently answered questions. Most often, the reason for the change is that questions don’t count toward the current cumulative score until they have…
A3CR2 Award Proves Value of Trustee’s Commitment to Teaching
By Sanjeev Bhalla, MD Many years ago, my mentor, Stuart Sagel, told me that academic radiology was like running a relay race. As an attending, my job was to take the baton from one generation and pass it on to the next. For the past 20 years at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University in Saint Louis, I have…
ABR Family Leave Policy: An Opportunity for Progress in Radiology
By Jesse M. Conyers, MD The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Policy on Parental, Caregiver, and Family Leave represents a culture shift in medicine. According to the policy, “Starting in July 2021, all ABMS Member Boards with training programs of two or more years duration will allow for a minimum of six weeks away…
Game, Set, Matched: Match Day Validations
By Jacqueline Koomson, MD Medicine has always been an intimidating institution to me. Facing the daunting years of training, I feared I was inherently inadequate. I spent 22 years in school learning about organ systems, pathways and procedures, patient interactions – all things that would shape me as a doctor. As I immersed myself in…
Residency leave feedback deadline moved to April 30
In an effort to welcome as much feedback as possible, the ABR is extending the deadline to April 30 for comments on a new residency leave policy. We are seeking feedback so that we may develop a plan before July 1 to comply with an ABMS requirement announced last year to clearly state these requirements in our…
Stakeholders support increase in residency leave time
The ABR continues to gather input from our stakeholder groups, especially trainees and program faculty, regarding our residency leave policy that is under development. The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has mandated that the individual specialty boards, including the ABR, establish clear limits on how much time away from training is permissible before training…
Stressed in Cincinnati: Addressing Interruptions in Children’s Hospital Reading Room
The reading room is the center of diagnostic function in a radiology department. It’s also the site of numerous interruptions as radiologists perform complex tasks. At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, diagnostic radiologists were being interrupted on average every 186 seconds. The distractions were numerous: phone calls, clinical questions, pages, and more. Ethan Smith, MD,…
Eleven Members Named to IR/DR IC Advisory Committee
March 29, 2021Contact: Rodney Campbellrcampbell@theabr.org The ABR has named 11 members to its first Initial Certification Advisory Committee for Interventional Radiology/Diagnostic Radiology. Members were nominated by the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), SIR Resident, Fellow and Student Section; SIR Early Career Section; and the Association of Program Directors in Interventional Radiology (APDIR). The committee’s mission…
Blazing Trails and Breaking Barriers: Celebrating Women Innovators in Medicine and Radiology
By A. Nina Watson, MD As a female radiologist, I’ve gotten accustomed to the surprised looks, and occasional raised eyebrows I sometimes receive when I tell people I’m a physician. While women physicians are on the frontlines of medical breakthroughs and patient care, we are still underrepresented in radiology. A recent study revealed that female…
ABR Looking for Feedback on Residency Service-Time Requirement
The ABR is seeking input from stakeholders regarding minimum requirements for time served during residency while avoiding an extension of training to be considered board eligible. We are actively seeking comment now so that we may develop a reasonable plan before July 1 to comply with an ABMS requirement announced last year to clearly state these requirements in our policies. Extreme scenarios might…