Erin Murphy, MD, has been affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic for most of her adult life. Dr. Murphy, a radiation oncologist, began her training there in 2005. Aside from a fellowship at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, her professional experience has happened at the Clinic.

When Dr. Murphy became an ABR volunteer in 2020, she joined dozens of her Cleveland Clinic colleagues, who give of their time to improve their specialties by helping to create board certification exams. She also had the chance to work closely with physicians from across the country and learn how other institutions and practices function.

“You’re kind of siloed in your job at your own institution, getting through your day-to-day, looking after patients and doing clinical trials,” she said. “It’s really nice to step outside of that and know that there are other people doing really interesting things as well and that there’s a network of colleagues who are all in it together.”

Dr. Murphy started her ABR volunteerism by writing Radiation Oncology Qualifying Exam questions for the pediatrics and central nervous system sections. She specializes in treating patients with brain tumors and any child who needs radiation treatments at the Clinic.

Although she eventually became an oral examiner, she appreciates what she learned as a question writer from her committee colleagues.

“With the written exam, there’s no intense pressure of having a person right in front of you,” she said. “(Writing exam questions is) kind of fun. You learn how other people think about and treat specific diseases, and you can understand different patterns of practice and know what’s OK and what’s not OK. You can learn a bit from that because we’re all trained and know how we do things at our institutions.”

She also enjoys her role as an oral examiner. Her work starts by establishing expectations with the candidate.

“Setting an appropriate tone is a big part of our job,” Dr. Murphy said. “I tell them that we’re going to try to get through this number of cases and that they shouldn’t hesitate to let me know if they have questions. We’re really setting that tone, calming things down. We know everybody is smart, but they’re certainly on the edge that day.”

Oral examiners can only do so much to put candidates at ease. Although examiners attempt to be patient and supportive, real-time feedback about how examinees are doing is discouraged because it could create false expectations regarding the outcome.

“I like to be very positive and encouraging, but you have to make sure you don’t cross a line,” Dr. Murphy said. “I can’t say, ‘It’s fine, don’t worry. You’re doing great. You’re going to pass.’”

As do oral examiners across all disciplines, Dr. Murphy reflects on her days as a candidate while she’s examining. She was tough on herself while taking an initial certification oral exam and understands that candidates often are experiencing similar feelings.

“I remember how intense it was, and I’m very mindful of that for these folks,” she said. “I remember thinking that I would let the world down if I failed one section.”

Whether writing exam questions or serving as an oral examiner, Dr. Murphy believes in the ABR’s important role of ensuring that candidates are knowledgeable enough to safely treat patients.

“As a group, we understand that our job is to make sure that qualified candidates pass and that there will be good radiation oncologists who can appropriately look after patients,” she said. “I think the process is well done and I’m happy to be part of it.”

Dr. Murphy sees her volunteer position as an important way to improve her specialty by helping candidates become better physicians. Whether at the Cleveland Clinic or an ABR committee meeting, she’s thankful to serve the world of radiation oncology.

“I’m grateful for my education, training, and all the experiences that I’ve had,” she said. “Giving back is always a good thing.”

A native Californian, Jocelyn Cheng, MD, is happy to be back in her home state for her diagnostic radiology residency.

To start at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, however, she had to rush across the country and get settled in a little less than a week. Before beginning her residency on July 1, she finished her intern year at Brockton Hospital near Boston and went on a quick family trip to Cape Cod in June.

“I had eight days off from the end of my (internship) to the start of this residency,” she said. “It ended up being more like a three-day scramble.”

Fortunately, she had help. Her older brother is performing a neurology fellowship at USCF Medical Center and was able to locate an apartment for Dr. Cheng that’s just a seven-minute commute to work. He also helped her move furniture and pick up a few necessities.

Her new roommate, a fellow radiology resident named Priya, also made the transition easier. The two met on Instagram.

“My brother and Priya were just so incredibly helpful to me during those first few days and the initial move-in,” Dr. Cheng said. “(The move-in process) helped me bond with Priya a little bit.”

After she started her residency on July 1, she found her new cohorts to be just as welcoming. Less than a month into the program, the group went on a weekend trip to wineries in Napa.

“Being in an environment where people have so many common interests has been really fun,” Dr. Cheng said. “I think all of my co-residents get along smashingly.”

An East Coast Upbringing

Coming back to California wasn’t a guarantee. Dr. Cheng’s family moved out of the state when she was young, and she graduated from high school in Massachusetts and earned her undergraduate and medical degrees at Brown University in Rhode Island.

Her experience before and during the Match process convinced her that UCSF was the right place to continue her training, despite the cross-country relocation.

“There were a ton of really strong academic institutions on the East Coast that I was considering,” she said. “I enjoyed the individual interactions during interview day. When I did an away rotation (at UCSF), I really liked the faculty.”

Dr. Cheng’s interest in radiology started early in medical school. An engineering major during her undergrad studies, she found diagnostic radiology perfect for her technology background and natural curiosity. She had been considering pediatrics.

“I think when you’re solving a mystery, the most fun part is being the detective,” she said. “It’s not being a lawyer who’s trying to argue the facts. It’s not being a social worker who’s carrying out certain tasks to help bring the victim’s family justice. It’s being the detective and doing diagnostic work behind the scenes.”

Third-year rotations in mammography and pediatric radiology sealed her plans. Both involved collaborative work environments; she chose pediatrics for her career path.

“I found that there were plenty of conversations with patients and other doctors that satisfied my need to talk to people,” Dr. Cheng said. “There were a lot of patient encounters and hands-on care.”

Dr. Cheng benefitted from working with Elizabeth Dibble, MD, an associate professor of diagnostic imaging at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School. Their collaboration resulted in a highly competitive grant award to Dr. Cheng from the Radiological Society of North America (Dr. Cheng put together the grant application), abstract presentations, and publications, one of which received an award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

“Jocelyn was an excellent student to work with,” Dr. Dibble said. “She had such great ideas and was a pleasure to work with.”

Next Year Brings New Challenge

Still early in her residency, Dr. Cheng knows she has much to learn before practicing independently. One of the biggest challenges will come when she goes on call next year.

“The first step is making sure that I don’t miss anything that’s emergent and will hurt someone,” she said. “Trying to become a safe radiologist is my first priority, and then becoming a good or great one is going to come later in my progression.”

After the grind of a yearlong internship at Brockton that included significant time in the emergency department, Dr. Cheng is energized and motivated for her UCSF residency to get going.

Her cross-country odyssey resulted in a work life that’s just what she wants: all radiology, all the time.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I want to roll out of bed and go to work every day,” Dr. Cheng said.

Like many of his colleagues, Brian Funaki, MD, remembers what it was like to earn ABR certification as a diagnostic radiologist in the 20th century.

All roads led to Louisville’s Executive West Hotel. Now a Crowne Plaza property, the hotel was the site of in-person oral certifying exams that candidates had to pass to earn Initial Certification. ABR staff spent weeks there every year and thousands of anxious candidates walked the hotel’s hallways.

It was necessary but not everyone’s idea of fun.

“Anybody who’s my age, if you mention Louisville, the hair on the back of your neck stands up a little bit,” Dr. Funaki said. “It’s something that anyone who has been through will never forget.”

That experience was part of the reason why Dr. Funaki wanted to become an ABR volunteer. Now a question writer and oral examiner for the IR/DR Certifying Exam, he knows what goes into compiling and administering ABR exams. He has looked inside what he once considered a “Black Box.”

“You’re never objective when you’re taking the exam,” he said. “But now, seeing the other side of it, it is extremely well done and very fair.”

Dr. Funaki, a professor of radiology and chief of the section of vascular and interventional radiology for UChicago Medicine, meets remotely with his fellow committee members for an hour most weeks and once a year in person to put the exam together. He believes that all the work he and his experienced colleagues expend makes the exam a relevant device for measuring candidate knowledge and improving patient safety.

“You get a good sense of what people know and what they don’t know and what’s fair and what isn’t,” Dr. Funaki said. “I think that as far as a certifying exam, I don’t know how you could really do much better than what we do right now. The exam is very reflective of what happens in the real world.”

Darryl Zuckerman, MD, a vascular and interventional radiologist at Yale University with more than 30 years of experience, encouraged Dr. Funaki to become an ABR volunteer. Dr. Zuckerman is chair of the certifying exam committee that counts Dr. Funaki among its members.

“Brian is a very well-respected veteran interventional radiologist,” Dr. Zuckerman said. “Personally, I have learned a great deal during my professional interactions with him, whether through the ABR, SIR, or in the world of medical publishing. He is well versed in nearly all aspects of interventional radiology and has a well-deserved reputation across the IR community in the U.S.”

Dr. Funaki teaches and performs clinical work at UChicago Medicine. He said working with candidates makes him a better question writer and oral examiner, because his mind never strays far from what his trainees should know to become certified.

“We all strive for the boards to be reflective of what’s real life and what’s fair across the breadth of practice in the United States,” he said. “When we think about that and what we teach, it all goes through the lens of the boards. I’m always thinking about different things that are on the boards and how I can impart that knowledge to our trainees.”

Serving as a volunteer has been an education for Dr. Funaki and his colleagues. He said that there are several things he wishes he had known as a candidate nervously anticipating his certifying exam in Louisville in 1996.

“I knew (the ABR was) in charge of testing us,” he said. “I didn’t understand the time commitment that volunteers make. Learning about all of that and demystifying everything was eye-opening for me … to see how an exam is vetted and to know that a tremendous group of people who span the fields geographically are putting these exams together. The amount of time, effort, and thought that goes into exams is substantial.”