News & Updates from ABEM

Building Excellence in Emergency Medicine

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit. Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
~ Aristotle

Making excellence a habit is a worthy goal in the practice of Emergency Medicine not only for ourselves but also for the patients we serve as it can lead to consistent, high-quality performance in many aspects of our lives. But what does it take to cultivate excellence as a habit for board-certified emergency physicians?

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If you certified or recertified after 2021, you now have an annual fee. The annual fee payment:

is not an additional fee; it replaces any individual activity fee (LLSA fees, MyEMCert module costs).
is the only fee you pay after your initial certification exams and covers all the necessary costs for your continuing certification (other than optional CME).
may be paid annually or in one lump sum.
avoids any interruption to certification.

A late fee will be assessed for annual fees not paid within the allowed timeframe.

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5-year Certification Cycle and Annual Fee FAQs

Updates on the Becoming Certified Initiative

The Oral Certification Exam is an important part of ABEM certification. It measures unique competencies that are not measured on the Qualifying (written) Exam and has been shown to be a valid and reliable examination. Most importantly, the Oral Exam differentiates ABEM-certified physicians from other providers.

The Becoming Certified Initiative was launched in 2021 to explore all facets of the process for emergency physicians to become certified. During the course of examining all aspects of initial certification, participants of the Becoming Certified Task Force heard opinions about what ABEM should assess for initial certification. They conducted focus groups with program directors, leadership from EM societies, employers, and many other stakeholders; issued multiple surveys to these same groups as well as emergency physicians; and convened a summit of stakeholders. What they learned during this process is that ABEM should maintain high standards for certification and create an assessment that is more relevant to practice and adaptable to changes in medicine. ABEM also needs to better assess competencies such as:

Team management/leadership
Task switching
Prioritization
High-stakes communications/difficult conversations
Procedural skills

ABEM looks forward to presenting a new vision for ABEM initial certification that best meets the needs of and provides value to the specialty of Emergency Medicine in the next few months.

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Updates to Medical Toxicology Sponsoring Boards
The American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) is moving forward to no longer serve as a co-sponsoring board for certification in Medical Toxicology. This means that ABEM will be issuing new certificates in MedTox to physicians certified by the ABPM as well as physicians from other member boards. The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) is also considering a similar move and will be deciding on this change soon. As a result of these changes, ABEM will be updating and modifying policies including those related to Subboard governance. It is expected that the transition will be completed in 2025. If you have any questions, please contact ABEM CAO Kathleen C. Ruff, M.B.A., at kruff@abem.org.

IMPORTANT Information for Physicians Certified in Both EMS and EM
For EMS-certified physicians who are also maintaining their EM certification, the two following MyEMCert modules can count toward both EMS and EM recertification: Trauma and Bleeding, and Abnormal Vital Signs and Shock. To provide you the greatest benefit and ease to maintaining your EMS certification, you should take only one of these modules every 5 years. If you have ANY questions, please contact ABEM at 517-332-4800 option 2, or staycertified@abem.org.

Modules Available Now!
Module content
Knowledge Advancement reading list

Please note that requirements vary. If you have any questions, please contact ABEM at 517-332-4800 option 2 or subspecialties@abem.org.

ABEM was recently selected as a recipient of the 2024 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O., Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. The ACGME recognized the Dr. Leon L. Haley, Jr., Bridge to the Future of Emergency Medicine Academy for its innovation and excellence to mentor pre-resident learners into the field of medicine and biomedical research.

"It is a tremendous honor to be recognized for our efforts to build a pathway for developing future physicians from backgrounds that are underrepresented in medicine,” stated Ramon W. Johnson, M.D., M.B.A., ABEM President. “This furthers our goal of setting the highest standard in Emergency Medicine by increasing the diversity of our physician workforce to better care for the diverse communities in which we work."

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Two recently published research papers highlight the value that board certification provides to emergency physicians, and two others about the value of the Oral Certification Examination.

Board Certification Associated with Higher Physician Income
In “Factors Associated with Emergency Physician Income” the authors identified income disparities associated with gender, practice setting, fellowship completion, and ABEM or AOBEM certification. Female physicians earned less than their male counterparts, fellowship training was associated with lower income, and working at a for-profit institution earned higher incomes. Notably, board-certified emergency physicians earned $43,267 more per year than non–board-certified physicians.

Reisdorff EJ, et al. Factors associated with emergency physician income. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open 2023 Apr;4(2):e12949. doi: 10.1002/emp2.12949

Board-certified Emergency Physicians Exhibit Greater Career Resiliency
In “Attrition from the US Emergency Medicine Workforce During Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” results showed that board-certified physicians had lower attrition rates (7.6%) than their non–board-certified counterparts (10.6%). This indicates a greater career resiliency among certified physicians during the pandemic. Possible reasons cited for the lower rate were the disproportionate economic impact of COVID-19 on rural hospital finances caused reduced emergency department staffing, leading to attrition; and that board-certified emergency physicians are more likely to be employed within larger, more financially stable health care systems in urban environments.

Gettel CJ, et al. Attrition from the US emergency medicine workforce during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ann Emerg Med 2023 May 2:S0196-0644(23)00176-2. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2023.03.002 Online ahead of print.

The Oral Exam Measures Skills Not Included on the Qualifying Exam
Finally, “The Correlation Between Performance on the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) Qualifying and Oral Certifying Examination” finds that the Qualifying (written) Exam and the Oral Certifying Exam used for initial certification are moderately correlated, but that the Oral Exam measures additional competencies that are necessary for the competent practice of emergency medicine. In other words, the Qualifying Exam and Oral Certification are related but different examinations.

We would like to give a big shout out to the Key Advance Panel (KAP). The panel is comprised of thought leaders from a variety of backgrounds who select, develop, and maintain the topics and synopses of the Key Advances. Key advances are an important element of the MyEMCert modules. They facilitate learning, amplify medical discoveries so you can use them to improve patient care, leverage the most popular aspects of the current LLSA tests, and highlight some of the most clinically relevant emerging literature. The expert panel includes a medical librarian who conducts literature reviews on the topics periodically to support the panel’s activities.

Current members are: