Application Period Open for Visiting Scholars Program
2025;18(2):12
Residents and early career physicians and physicists are encouraged to apply to become an American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Visiting Scholar.
The ABR partners with the ABMS to assist candidates and early career diplomates with their research efforts and leadership development. The program facilitates research projects that address pressing health care issues and research priorities for the Member Board community.
Applications for the 2025-’26 Visiting Scholars cohort will be accepted until June 26. The one-year program begins in September.
The ABR’s goal is to fund as many as four scholars each year at $15,000 apiece. For more information, please visit the ABR’s website, the ABMS’ website or watch this video.
Dr. Morgan Receives Society of Abdominal Radiology Gold Medal
2025;18(2):13
The SAR Gold Medal is the highest recognition given by the Society and based on contributions to abdominal radiology, medicine, and patient health. It also takes into consideration service within the Society and is based on a lifetime of commitment to the SAR mission and values.
Dr. Morgan is a fellow and former member of the SAR board of directors and served as SAR president in 2020.
An ABR volunteer since 1997, Dr. Morgan served as an oral board examiner, an item writer for the gastrointestinal radiology sections of the Qualifying (Core) and Certifying exams, and chair of the GI Core Committee prior to joining the Board of Trustees as the abdominal Trustee in 2018. She joined the Board of Governors in 2023.
Dr. Morgan is a graduate of the Honors College of the University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia. She completed a transitional internship in Birmingham followed by a DR residency at UAB. After joining the faculty there in 1993, she served the department in multiple capacities, including vice chair of clinical research (2009-2015), DR program director (2015-2017), and vice chair of education (2015-2023), before transitioning to her current vice chair role.
She is a former program director of the UAB Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program and has long championed learner success at all professional levels. She is a lead mentor for the UAB Heersink School of Medicine Barfield Carter Community, a group of 70 to 80 first- through fourth-year medical students with whom she shares lessons and activities on ethics, professionalism, and leadership development.
OLA Scoring Provides Accurate Representation of Diplomates’ Knowledge
By Brooke Houck, PhD, ABR Associate Director of Assessments Research and Strategy
2025;18(2):11
Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA) is a continuous assessment program that allows diplomates to engage in learning over the course of their five-year Continuing Certification Part 3 cycle. Having an OLA passing score in the fifth year of each cycle fulfills the Part 3 requirement of Continuing Certification.
Every OLA participant has a unique assessment. It is extremely unlikely for any two participants to see the same questions, in the same order, at the same time. The system offers questions randomly, based on an algorithm that considers, among other things, the exam blueprint and the diplomate’s certification. Therefore, the formula listed below represents scoring for one specific individual and must be applied at the individual level. The questions contained in the “last 200 questions” are unique in that those questions were completed at different times than other participants and may have different difficulty ratings.
Scoring formula
In this example, the participant’s OLA performance is 0.33 above the standard. The scaled standard is zero for all participants. The participant got 80% of their last 200 scorable questions correct, and the average difficulty rating of those questions is 60%. The division of 0.80/0.60 = 1.33, where 1.33 is representative of a raw performance relative to the individual’s criterion-referenced standard. This raw performance is then subtracted from one in order to scale the performance score, resulting in a performance score of 0.33. This should be interpreted as 33% above the minimum passing standard for that individual’s last set of 200 scorable questions. Because the assessment is continuous, after 200 questions are completed, additional completed, scorable questions push out the oldest questions from the scorable set, resulting in dynamic scoring that changes to reflect participants’ ongoing performance.
Rating questions over time
Questions are continuously rated; therefore, a question is scored using the rating current to the week in which the question was taken. This is done so that someone who answers correctly on a very difficult question (has a low difficulty rating)1 gets credit for the question being difficult, even if the question becomes easier later (the difficulty rating increases).
Question difficulty is determined by the average rating given by question raters in OLA. For a question to be scorable, it must be rated at least 10 times; however, ratings are not capped. Over time, the number of ratings for each question grows, changing the question rating over time as new ratings are incorporated. A question might “become easier” over time if the additional ratings greatly increase the question’s difficulty rating. In testing, it is not uncommon for a question’s statistical properties (question difficulty or discrimination) to change over time; this is known as parameter drift and is something that the ABR monitors on all our assessments.
Using the example given previously, if we change the mean difficulty rating to 0.70 (70%), OLA performance is 0.14 (14% above the standard).
The change in the average difficulty rating from 0.60 to 0.70 (i.e., 60% to 70%), while keeping the percent correct at 80%, changes the OLA performance score from 33% above the standard to 14% above the standard. The change of difficulty to 0.70 means that, on average, the questions were easier than the set of questions with an average difficulty rating of 0.60.
Using last 200 scorable questions
OLA is designed to be a flexible assessment wherein participants can both learn from incorrect answers and be assessed for the Part 3 component of Continuing Certification. Using only the last 200 scorable questions provides participants with the opportunity to learn and improve over the course of the five-year Part 3 cycle. Additionally, it improves measurement precision because diplomates are more familiar with the software the longer they use it. This means that performance, as defined by the last 200 scorable questions, always represents the best attempt at mitigating measurement error due to lack of knowledge of the software. It also provides a performance score most closely tied to current knowledge, skills, and abilities by using the most recent 200 scorable questions.
1The rating value is inversely related to difficulty (i.e., a high rating indicates an easy question).
Her Shift to a ‘Day Job’ Took Years of Work
By Rodney Campbell, ABR Communications Manager
2024;18(2):9
There are career changes and there are career changes. Two decades ago, ABR volunteer Adina Alazraki, MD, made a huge switch in her work life.
After completing training and working in the emergency room as an urgent care physician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Dr. Alazraki rebooted her career with the goal of becoming a diagnostic radiologist. In 2003, eight years after starting her pediatrics residency, she started anew as a radiology resident.
“I decided I needed a day job,” said Dr. Alazraki, a radiology and pediatrics professor at Emory University School of Medicine and director of pediatric radiology at the Arthur M. Blank campus of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “I couldn’t see myself doing primary care pediatrics. I decided to pursue radiology and I’m really glad I did.”
The career adjustment meant five more years of training at Emory University School of Medicine, where she had completed her pediatrics residency. In the process, she had to refamiliarize herself with an aspect of medicine that she hadn’t studied in a while.
“It had been seven years since I had done adult medicine,” said Dr. Alazraki, who also completed a pediatric radiology fellowship at Emory. “The hardest part was going back and relearning adult medicine. As a radiology resident, for example, you learn to read adult chest imaging, you learn prostate imaging, and you read all aspects of breast imaging.”
Fortunately, her career change happened in a familiar environment. She has been affiliated with Emory since starting medical school there in 1991. Spending three decades building a good reputation makes her a reliable resource in her new role.
“Having relationships already established, I became the pediatrician’s radiologist,” she said. “They knew me and were aware that I knew what they were looking for. I value those relationships. Being trusted by your referrers brings a higher level of job satisfaction.”
The change to radiology was a long time coming. Dr. Alazraki’s mother and stepfather were nuclear radiologists. She said her mother has always been her role model, making the career switch a little more familiar.
“She loved her job and was a leader in the world in nuclear medicine,” Dr. Alazraki said. “She started in the field as it was beginning. That was an influence on me. Her passion translated to me, and I never felt abandoned by her work.”
Dr. Alazraki’s path to becoming an ABR volunteer started when she worked for Board of Governors member Stephen F. Simoneaux, MD, when he was division chief and director of pediatric radiology at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She said he often would stress the importance of volunteering to his colleagues.
Dr. Simoneaux said he’s pleased that Dr. Alazraki was listening, because she brings a unique viewpoint to discussions as a member of the DR Qualifying Exam Nuclear Radiology Committee.
“Dr. Alazraki is an exceptional radiologist whose expertise in abdominal imaging and nuclear radiology is well known locally and nationally,” Dr. Simoneaux said. “Her ability to bring the clinical perspective as a pediatrician is an added benefit. In her volunteer work on the nuclear radiology committees, her knowledge of both molecular imaging and pediatric radiology is greatly appreciated and not easily duplicated.”
One of the many reasons Dr. Alazraki volunteers for the ABR is her commitment to continuing education. She proves that by remaining board certified by the ABR and the American Board of Pediatrics and participating in the Continuing Certification programs offered by both organizations.
“Lifelong learning is something I thrive on,” she said. “Even learning adult nuclear medicine from my colleagues on the committee is an example of more continuous learning. Being at Emory and Children’s Healthcare also affords me the ability to be a lifelong learner.”
A commitment to learning and desire to contribute to their disciplines inspires ABR volunteers. They benefit from being around their peers and creating exams that accurately challenge their younger colleagues’ skills and knowledge.
“When you serve as a volunteer, you’re doing it for the development of future generations and making sure that the graduating trainees are well educated,” Dr. Alazraki said. “At the heart of it, everyone who’s a volunteer is an educator. What brings us joy is knowing that we’re contributing to that education.”
