Newswise — ROCHESTER, MINN. — After careful deliberation and research, the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine (ABEM) Board of Directors voted to change the format of the ABEM Certification Examination at its spring meeting in Chicago, Ill. The board voted to eliminate the oral examination component and move the examination delivery to national testing centers.
“The oral examination has not been a discriminatory determinant of passing or failing the overall examination. Essentially all individuals who failed the oral examination also failed the written/waveform examination,” said Kathryn Stolp, MD, ABEM Chair. “The Board also has discussed moving the examination to testing centers for many years, and now we’re pleased to provide this convenience for our candidates.”
The ABEM Examination Committee believes these changes will better meet current candidate needs. Michael Weiss, MD, Examination Committee Chair, explained, “We are creating an exam that is more clinically relevant by reviewing the passing statistics from other subspecialty certification examinations and determining the best method to align the ABEM examination pass rate with comparable certification examinations. We pledge to continue offering an examination of the highest quality.”
Currently the examination consists of three parts—written, waveform analysis, and oral—over the span of a day and a half. “We listened to past test takers and tried to create an examination delivery format that will save the candidates both in travel costs and days off work,” said Derek McMurchie, professional standards manager. “Until now, candidates travelled to Chicago to take the examination, incurring travel, hotel, and meal costs while also missing days at work. Moving it to nationwide testing centers will reduce these candidate costs.”
The ABEM Certification Examination is traditionally administered in the spring in Chicago. In 2015, however, the examination will be available nationwide in the fall in its new format. More information will be communicated on www.abemexam.org as it becomes available.
The ABEM certification examination has been used to evaluate physician’s knowledge in electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine since 1967. Since 1989, when ABEM was formed, more than 3,500 physicians have been certified.
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