American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM)

Initial certification is a three-part process: 1) residency training in Emergency Medicine; 2) a qualifying written examination; and 3) an oral examination. The certification process begins with the successful completion of an accredited council for graduate medical education (acgme)- or royal college of physicians and surgeons of canada (rcpsc)- accredited residency program in Emergency Medicine. Abem also recognizes specific combined training programs that have been approved in advance by the respective sponsoring boards. Once abem verifies an applicant's credentials, the applicant automatically receives an assignment to the qualifying written examination. After passing the qualifying examination, then take an oral examination. (continued on schedule o) upon passing the oral examination, physicians are certified and are designated as diplomates. The certificate the physician receives is a time-limited certificate that expires in 10 years. To maintain certification, diplomates must participate in the abem moc process.

Abem develops and administers an in-training examination. This multiple- choice question examination is offered annually on the last wednesday in february to residents in acgme-accredited and rcpsc-accredited Emergency Medicine residency programs. The in-training examination is a standardized test that residents and program faculty can use to predict the likelihood of an individual resident passing the written qualifying examination.

The American Board of medical specialties (abms) designed a maintenance of certification (moc) program that promates continuous learning and periodic assessment. Each of the 19 abms member boards are required to adopt the abms moc program. The moc integrates the following six defined conpetencies: 1) patient care; 2) medical knowledge; 3) practice-based learning and improvement; 4) interpersonal and communication skills; 5) professionalism; and 6) systems-based practice. To maintain certification beyond a abem certificate's 10-year expiration date, abem diplomates must participate in each component of moc as follows: 1) continuously maintain medical licensure in compliance with the abem policy on medical licensure; (continued on schedule o) 2) complete annual lifelong learning self-assessment llsa tests based on designated readings; 3) pass a secure, proctored continuous certification (concert) multiple choice question examination; and 4) for clinically- active diplomates, meet the requirements of the improvement in medical practice component, which requires participation in a medically relevant quality improvement activity.