New Governors Share First Impressions
2025;18(1):4
In our last issue, we heard from the ABR Trustees who joined the Board in September 2024. This month, we asked new members of the ABR Board of Governors (BOG) to tell us about their experiences. Below are their answers to the following questions:
- What made you interested in being on the Board of Governors?
- What did you think about your first board meeting?
- What do you see as the ABR’s priorities moving forward?
- There are multiple reasons. I have known several former members who all described being on the Board as a meaningful and impactful part of their career. Personally, having served as chair of the Residency Review Committee for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in radiology during the development of the training pathways for interventional radiology (IR), I was interested in providing that historical knowledge and background to BOG discussions and decisions. My role as a former program director and service on the Association of Program Directors in Radiology executive board gives me perspective into the current move to the Diagnostic Radiology (DR) Oral Exam, which I also think is important for the BOG to have represented. I feel that the BOG is responsive to the needs of the radiology community.
- The first board meeting was pretty much what I had envisioned. There was somewhat more discussion about topics than I had anticipated, which was a positive. I felt very accepted right from the start and able to express my views.
- I think one of the most important priorities is developing and rolling out the new oral exam for DR. I also think the financial health of the organization is always important. Managing the various constituents of the ABR (radiation oncology, medical physics, DR, and IR) is somewhat unique to the ABR and presents challenges, especially in times of transition such as is occurring with DR and IR, the various training pathways, and the changing practice landscape.
- I responded to the call for physicians in private practice to participate. I have been in private practice for over 20 years and am certified in neuroradiology and pediatric radiology. I would like to contribute to the current and future standardization of the criteria for excellence in the discipline of radiology. Whether our patients have imaging done at a community hospital, a private hospital, or in an academic medical center, image interpretation should be consistent and offered at the highest quality. In addition, the Board of Governors is responsible for ABR financial affairs, initial and continuing certification program processes, communications, strategic planning and priority setting, intersociety relations and outreach, and oversight of American Board of Medical Specialty matters.
- As a professional registered parliamentarian, I have served on other boards and in committee positions assisting with bylaws review and revision and was president of the National Association Parliamentarians’ parliamentary unit, Green Gavel. My first ABR board meeting was quite exciting, and I was impressed with the engagement, productivity, and meeting management. I enjoyed getting to know the other board members and saw that everyone is passionately committed to the success of the diplomates and to their fiduciary responsibilities as stewards of the ABR. I look forward to contributing my perspective as a community physician while learning from the diversity of everyone’s experiences.
- Assuring the ABR’s status as the indispensable certifying entity for physician and physicist knowledge, skills, and professionalism to ensure the highest quality of patient care delivery continues to be our mission. Health equity requires that critical imaging services such as stroke imaging, lung cancer screening, breast cancer screening, and all imaging modalities are available to all communities. The services radiologists and medical physicists provide are critical to health outcomes for everyone.
- After many years on the Board of Trustees in the exam development arena, I was interested in learning about the other aspects of service as a Governor.
- It was interesting to see the work being done that is so different from the job of exam creation. A whole host of other business must be completed to keep the ABR running smoothly.
- Priorities:
- Successfully launching the new DR Oral Exam.
- Recruiting and maintaining a strong volunteer pool.
- Keeping the trust of candidates and diplomates.
- Continued hiring of the excellent staff needed to continue high-quality work.
New Oral Examiner Event Offers Enhanced Mentorship and Training
By Michael Yunes, MD, ABR Associate Executive Director of Radiation Oncology
2025;18(1):9
The ABR Radiation Oncology Oral Certifying Exam (CE) is often considered the most stressful and difficult experience in the long and arduous journey to independent practice. The purpose of the CE is to assess a candidate’s clinical skills and judgment and to ensure that they are competent to practice independently for the benefit of patients. The ABR is passionate about providing a robust process that represents a credible assessment of knowledge and understanding of radiation oncology and mitigates the stress of the experience for the candidate. To that end, we will be piloting a model of examiner mentorship and training this spring.
During a CE, examiners ask candidates questions while progressing through various aspects of multiple cases, which may include patient history and physical exam, pathologic diagnosis, multidisciplinary discussion, and treatment decisions. Ultimately, the questions focus on radiation treatment and all associated activities.
The case selection is carefully curated and standardized between each exam. It includes a wide range of questions for each category, allowing examinees to fully demonstrate their knowledge as well as providing an opportunity for them to potentially recover if their performance on one case is suboptimal. Balancing each category, case, and exam involves a multilevel process that begins well over a year before the exam is delivered and continues until the results are submitted.
In clinical practice, radiation oncologists navigate different personalities, perspectives, demographics, languages, and disabilities among their patients and colleagues. The CE strives to remove as much variability as possible in the exam encounter, so examiners are assessing only clinical skills and decision making. Ongoing improvements in case development and focused examiner training can enhance the experience for the examinee and provide a superior assessment tool for the examiner.
The proposed enhancement of the ABR mentorship and training program, which will take place as an in-person event in Dallas, is open to all radiation oncology examiners. Participation is mandatory for inexperienced examiners and strongly encouraged for available experienced examiners.
Historically, examiners were trained remotely and then received additional in-person training before administering several supervised exams. Continuous feedback from category chairs, Trustees, and the associate executive director during oral exam administrations ensured impartial, unbiased, and equitable examinations for each candidate. The mentorship and training event takes this approach further by offering the following components:
- Introduction of the exam process, ABR staff, and volunteers
- Formal instruction on exam case development
- Training with exam delivery software
- Exam experience optimization, ensuring that all examinees are treated equitably without bias
- Discussion and management of more than 20 unique examinee/examiner scenarios
- Review of an exam reenactment video
- Practice exams with detailed examiner feedback
- Category reviews
Multiple ABR representatives, including exam delivery staff, psychometricians, Trustees, and several directors, will be available to assist and enhance the mentorship and training opportunity.
The ABR remains committed not only to limiting variability of the oral exam assessment model, but also to enhancing the experience for candidates.
Johns Hopkins Job and Baltimore Sports Make Volunteer a Happy Marylander
By Rodney Campbell, ABR Communications Manager
2025;18(1):11
During the NFL season, Brian Holly, MD, and a few of his colleagues at Johns Hopkins get together the day after Baltimore Ravens’ games to talk about the outcome.
He jokingly calls it “solving all of the team’s problems.”
“He’s a very passionate Ravens fan,” said Robert Liddell, MD, director of interventional radiology and an associate professor of radiology and radiological sciences at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “We bond over sports, as do a lot of our trainees. It’s another opportunity to diffuse things and allow people to be people and take the academic and the medical side of things out.”
Dr. Holly is part of a winning team of his own. As the interventional radiology integrated residency program director and assistant professor of radiology and radiological science, he’s the trainees’ equivalent of Ravens coach John Harbaugh.
“As a program director, you want the best for your trainees,” said Dr. Holly, who also writes IR/DR Qualifying (Core) Exam questions as an ABR volunteer. “You want them to be successful.”
He believes that serving as a volunteer helps him better understand the discipline and rigor of the process for the creation of a balanced and valid exam.
“I tell the residents that these questions go through multiple layers of revisions and testing,” he said. “There isn’t just one person coming up with a couple hundred questions and you have to figure out what they’re asking you. There are a lot of very dedicated and smart folks working hard on these things to make sure that the questions make sense and they’re fair, and the answer choices are good and there are no tricks involved.”
Dr. Holly’s ABR committee chair said his involvement has improved the group’s work.
“His contributions are high quality, and it is fun to work with him on the committee,” said Sidhartha Tavri, MD. “I very much look forward to his participation in the next cycle.”
In his clinical duties, Dr. Holly specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and post-thrombotic syndrome; advanced venous interventions including prostatic artery embolization; IVC filter removal; treatment of vascular malformations and uterine fibroids; and advanced biliary interventions.
“He does a lot of work with complex venous anatomy and recanalization of chronic venous occlusions, kind of stubborn, hard-to-fix issues,” Dr. Liddell said. “He has also gotten into other areas like prostate artery embolization, which requires a lot of skill and very fine technique. He is outstanding technically and clinically.”
Dr. Holly spends much of his week doing procedures and seeing patients in the clinic. A physician who originally considered orthopedic surgery, he enjoys hands-on work that complements his academic time.
“One of my favorite parts about my job is that no two days are the same,” he said. “I get to do something a little different every day. I really enjoy taking care of patients. I really enjoy teaching. I’ve got a nice mix of things that I enjoy doing.”
A lifelong Marylander, Dr. Holly graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2007. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Mercy Medical Center in 2008 and finished a radiology residency in 2012 at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He followed that with a fellowship in vascular and interventional radiology in 2013 at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and joined the faculty there afterward.
“All the stars aligned, and I ended up at a great practice at a great institution in an area where I wanted to be,” he said.
His home state has everything that he and his family want. He has spent the past decade working in Baltimore, connecting with colleagues and friends about the Ravens, Major League Baseball’s Orioles, and attractions outside the sports world.
Maryland fits his needs well.
“I tell my colleagues around the country that Maryland is the best state,” Dr. Holly said. “It’s got everything. We have oceans, mountains, cities, Chesapeake Bay. The schools are good for having a family. Maryland food is really good. There’s something to do for everyone.”
