Brain Injury Board Exams

[psyguru]

Is anyone else taking the Brain Injury Medicine Board exams? Does anyone one know of any forensic psychiatrists that are board-certified in Brain Injury Medicine? Is there a demand from civil and criminal attorneys for TBI cases?

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[splik]

I have been thinking of doing the brain injury medicine boards though feel conflicted because i do think these board exams are a scam. I dont know of any forensic psychiatrists that are board certified in BIM but TBI is very common in civil litigation and I suspect that many/most forensic psychiatrists end up doing some civil work end up doing at least some case involving TBI. attorneys have probably not heard of BIM board certification. Typically they want a psychiatrist to opine on the psychiatric complications of TBI, the psychological or psychiatric comorbidities (e.g. PTSD), issues related to malingering and cogniform disorder, and whether the plaintiff's complaints were the result of the injury. They will often have a neurologist or physiatrist opine or the more physical complications of TBI. even with BIM certification, no attorney worth their salt is going to stake their case on the psychiatrist regarding the physical complications of brain injury, even with certification in brain injury medicine.

TBI and mTBI cases are the bread and butter of forensic neuropsychiatrists.

for criminal litigation, TBI is probably not discussed enough. with the exception of death penalty cases where too much is made of it.

 

[psyguru]

Could a psychiatrist use this certification to help market and justify a higher rate? Currently being pidgeonholed as a correctional expert which is good but want to expand. I would not plan on using it to do the neuro or pmr bit....I think by studying for the exam I can expand my knowledge and may possible do some part time work in a tbi clinic to gain more expertise
..there has to be some value in being possibly the only forensic psych bim boarded md...not aware of any others

After this may plan on getting addiction boarded.. however there are a lot of addiction boarded forensic folks

 

[splik]

I have been thinking of doing addictions boards too haha. Though there is so much addiction in criminal work that a lot of my work includes addictions and I've never had anyone attorney about addictions boards - they want to know clinically you work with addicts. I think MRO certification is probably more useful.

I think brain injury boards couldn't hurt. It's one way of showing expertise. In order to sit for the boards you need to show that you're treating lots of TBI folks including acute TBI. For forensic work, demonstrating you are doing TBI work clinically will be more important to establishing your expertise but I've wondered if in the early stages of my career the certification might help.

Are you an AAPL member? Consider joining the forensic neuropsychiatry committee

 

[psyguru]

I plan on joining aapl this month. I am relatively new to the field. I also plan on getting my cchp. There are three levels but I probably will stop at cchp-mh. It is not an abms cert....but something to distinguish myself vs those with 20 page cvs. Thanks for the tip. I may pm you.

 

[TexasPhysician]

What would you study to pass this?

 

[notdeadyet]

I’m also curious where folks are getting the necessary hours for these. They look pretty loose on first glance, but the Practice Pathway for bot this and the Addiction Medicine have pretty strict requirements that you are working in a dedicated clinic/service, not just seeing dedicated patients.

Working in a PTSD clinic in which 50% of your patients have TBIs do not qualify for experience hours for Brain Injury fellowship pathway and working on a consult service in which 50% of your calls are for patients with SUD does not qualify for hours for the Addiction Medicine.

I get that lots of psychiatrists are probably working in addiction jobs, but I wouldn’t think that many psychiatrists would be working brain injury positions to qualify for this one.

 

[WisNeuro]

What would you study to pass this?

From my experience, you just need to be able to say that TBIs, no matter how minor, lead to any and every conceivable bad thing that can happen to a person. Also, it completely absolves said person from any accountability for their actions.

 

[michaelrack]

I’m also curious where folks are getting the necessary hours for these. They look pretty loose on first glance, but the Practice Pathway for bot this and the Addiction Medicine have pretty strict requirements that you are working in a dedicated clinic/service, not just seeing dedicated patients.

Working in a PTSD clinic in which 50% of your patients have TBIs do not qualify for experience hours for Brain Injury fellowship pathway and working on a consult service in which 50% of your calls are for patients with SUD does not qualify for hours for the Addiction Medicine.

I get that lots of psychiatrists are probably working in addiction jobs, but I wouldn’t think that many psychiatrists would be working brain injury positions to qualify for this one.

I was planning on doing the new addiction (american board of prev med) boards through the practice pathway, but it appears they are pretty strict in seeing the addiction patients in a dedicated service/clinic.

 

[splik]

I was planning on doing the new addiction (american board of prev med) boards through the practice pathway, but it appears they are pretty strict in seeing the addiction patients in a dedicated service/clinic.

One of my CL colleagues just took the addiction med boards and only does CL no dedicated addictions clinic/service so it doesn't seem that stringent

 

[notdeadyet]

One of my CL colleagues just took the addiction med boards and only does CL no dedicated addictions clinic/service so it doesn't seem that stringent

According to the language of the application, you'd have to be comfortable with being pretty creative in how you describe your workplace. C/L services (and other non-addiction specific clinical work) can account for only 25% of the total hours required for the practice pathway. I'm sure they don't rigorously background check the application, but caveat emptor. Slippery slope.

 

[psyguru]

looks like this thread has been hijacked..I am partly to blame....this is what I found for the BIM boards:
Textbook of Traumatic Brain Injury
Feb 15, 2011
by Jonathan M. Silver and Thomas W. McAllister

Manual of Traumatic Brain Injury: Assessment and Management
May 28, 2016
by Felise S. Zollman MD FAAN FAAMA and Zollman, Felise S., MD, FAAN, FAAMA

Manual of Traumatic Brain Injury: Assessment and Management 2nd Edition
by Felise Zollman MD FAAN FAAMA (Editor)

also there are questions from ABPMR

Brain Injury Medicine Subspecialty Exam Prep
Brain Injury Medicine Subspecialty Exam Prep CD-ROM

one is a cd-rom and the other is online.


This one I plan on getting after the boards.

Traumatic Brain Injury: Methods for Clinical and Forensic Neuropsychiatric Assessment,Third Edition
Mar 2, 2015
by Robert P. Granacher Jr.

 

[psyguru]

anyone else taking the BIM boards next week?

 

[psyguru]

I have been thinking of doing addictions boards too haha. Though there is so much addiction in criminal work that a lot of my work includes addictions and I've never had anyone attorney about addictions boards - they want to know clinically you work with addicts. I think MRO certification is probably more useful.

I think brain injury boards couldn't hurt. It's one way of showing expertise. In order to sit for the boards you need to show that you're treating lots of TBI folks including acute TBI. For forensic work, demonstrating you are doing TBI work clinically will be more important to establishing your expertise but I've wondered if in the early stages of my career the certification might help.

Are you an AAPL member? Consider joining the forensic neuropsychiatry committee

I was looking at taking the MRO course. Which one do you recommend? Courses ?