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ABIM to eliminate underlying certification requirement for nine subspecialties
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The American Board of Internal Medicine announced that it will eliminate the requirement that diplomates certified in specifically designated subspecialties also have to maintain underlying certifications.
The new policy was unanimously passed by the ABIM Council and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2016, according to a press release issued by ABIM.
The change will affects the following specialties and subspecialties:
- Those seeking to maintain certification in advanced HF and transplant cardiology, clinical cardiac electrophysiology, interventional cardiology or adult congenital heart disease will no longer have to maintain certification in CVD.
- Those seeking to maintain certification in transplant hepatology will no longer have to maintain certification in gastroenterology.
- Those seeking to maintain certification in adolescent medicine, hospice and palliative medicine, sleep medicine or sports medicine will no longer have to maintain certification in any other specialty.
The policy does not change the requirements for initial certification in the subspecialties; physicians must still be certified in a foundational discipline in order to initially certify in a subspecialty, according to the release.
James C. Blankenship
In a letter to membership, James C. Blankenship, MD, MHCM, FSCAI, president of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, wrote that SCAI had been lobbying for this change for 2 years and that “ABIM has now accepted all four points SCAI said were essential to changing [maintenance of certification] regulations that were unnecessarily burdensome and costly.”
According to the ABIM release, 15 medical specialty societies offered feedback on the proposal “and were generally supportive of the change.” – by Erik Swain