With the single GME system almost complete, there is some good news. All FUTURE DOs will now have the opportunity to be ABMS certified. And Internationally, they are looking more and more at your specialty certificates and the issuing board. They dont care as much if you are a DO or an MD but do care about your issuing board of the specialty certificates. ABMS (American Board of Medical Specialties) certificates are almost universally accepted and are almost universally accepted as the sole authority from the United States. The AOA has not lobbied hard enough overseas and this may mean the end for AOA specialty boards and colleges as students now have a choice, and they will naturally gravitate towards the specialty boards (ABMS) that are accepted. Its too difficult to take two boards and they will choose the one with most benefits from the beginning. Unfortunately, for the current AOA certificate holders it means your Colleges and Specialty boards will wither away as your certificates are not accepted internationally causing a vicious cycle of dwindling DO students entering AOA specialty colleges. Dwindling numbers means.... less clout, and even a less chance to get our certificates recognized. In a globalized world, physicians will want to be accepted universally, not just the United States.
I wish the AOA had lobbied harder during the ACGME merger to allow a grand father clause and allow current AOA certificate holders to be able to sit for the ABMS boards. This is a tragedy for all AOA certificate holders.... as we age into our golden years.... we will see our specialty colleges and board meetings become a lonelier place as our colleagues retire and new ones fail to come in. Grand father clauses are meant to prevent such professional catastrophes.
By the way, the current AOA international practice summary rights is quite misleading. It doesn't differentiate between DOs who are ABMS certified and DOs who are AOA board certified and hence paints a rosier picture than reality. (Many of the places listed only allow ABMS certified DOs). Where we made inroads in previous years some of those inroads have also been reversed. For example, in Dubai, there are DOs practicing that are AOA boarded. Dubai recently, in 2014, changed its health classifications. Those DOs currently practicing who have AOA certificates got grandfathered in, but all new DOs wanting to practice there have to have an ABMS certificate. And this is a trend taking place in many countries. The AOA still sits on a lot of money and money well spent lobbying internationally could reverse this trend and help preserve its colleges and specialty boards.
From a Current AOA certificate Holder who practiced internationally for a year.
