Specialty Boards after AOA Osteopathic Residency

[HeartlyPunny]

Which specialty boards should I take? Will there be some kind of accommodation before I have to make this decision?

A little background: I graduated an osteopathic IM residency, and they were given initial ACGME accreditation the next day, or very close there abouts. As such, I happily took the AOBIM and am board certified in internal medicine. Now, I am a year and a half into a cardiology fellowship which is now ACGME accredited and has dropped AOA accreditation. Not a unique situation lately.

When I finish, I have been encouraged to take ABMS cardiology boards. I understand that I would be eligible to take the osteopathic boards as well. My plan, and I’m sure that of many of the others in my situation, is to take the ABMS specialty boards for a variety of reasons. One is that this merger seems to lead toward a unified set of board certifications: it frankly seems silly to take the AOA boards. Additionally, there are certain advantages when it comes to specialty board certifications with ABMS when it comes to recertification. Namely, you do not have to keep recertifying on internal medicine.

Here’s the rub. The alternative pathway to board eligibility for ABIM IM boards as it stands now states that you are ABIM IM board eligible if you complete a ACGME accredited fellowship. You can subsequently take your ABMS specialty boards after you are board certified by the ABIM in IM. This basically means that specialty boards, any subsequent sub specialty boards would be delayed a year as you take the pre-requisite boards. This means a lot of make up studying when the information is less fresh. I guess that last bit is a good thing for your patients potentially.

Since this situation (which I’m assuming was much rarer a few years ago) will now be a frequent occurrence, is there a plan to either grandfather IM certification from AOBIM to ABIM or to waive the ABIM IM board certification requirement to take the specialty boards? Am I stuck with this decision?

If I am forced to chose, I think the choice is obvious as the AOA boards will soon be obsolete.

The optimist in me wants to believe that this is a recognized problem and is or will be addressed. Unfortunately, there also lives within me a cynic who realizes that board certification tests are a revenue stream for both organizations.

Does anyone have any insight or inside knowledge?

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[gutonc]

Since this situation (which I’m assuming was much rarer a few years ago) will now be a frequent occurrence, is there a plan to either grandfather IM certification from AOBIM to ABIM or to waive the ABIM IM board certification requirement to take the specialty boards? Am I stuck with this decision?

The obvious people to ask are ABIM. Who will probably come to a decision the day after you sit for your cards boards.

FWIW, I don't think that waiting a year or 2 to take sub-specialty boards is a problem, and might actually be a benefit. Many of us get super wrapped up in a specific area of our sub-specialty during fellowship only to wind up doing a more general practice. That year or so of general practice will help you get your broad chops back (or solidify the ones you already had).

As an example, I did the ABIM research pathway so wasn't even allowed to sit for my IM boards until after my first year of fellowship. Since I wasn't in residency anymore, and nobody was talking about it, I completely spaced the registration date for the IM boards the first time I could take it. The second time, I just blew it off. So I took IM boards as a PGY5, in my 3rd year of fellowship. Still nailed it...but with more sweat than was probably warranted.

Now, fast forward to the sub-specialty (not Cards) boards. Since I did the research pathway, I was super specialized, and mostly lab based, in my last 2 years of fellowship. In the end, I took a general, non-academic job and had to scramble the last 6 months of fellowship to get more general experience. So I made the choice to take the boards during my 2nd year of practice. It was far and away the easiest of all the exams (starting with Step 1) that I have had to take over my career.

YMMV of course, but there's probably no reason that you will have to take the cards boards the second you finish fellowship.

 

[IM2GI]

Even jobs that want you to be board certified just require that you are board eligible in the beginning. As above you have a few years to figure it out if you need to.

 

[HeartlyPunny]

Appreciate the perspective

 

[nlax30]

The way things are now I think you’re stuck having to go back and take ABIM IM boards if you wish to pursue ABIM certification for cards.

I’m in a similar position, did IM and Cards at an AOA program that transitioned to ACGME right after I graduated. I’m not at an ACGME sub-fellowship (had always been ACGME) and last I checked with ABIM (about a year ago) since my IM boards are though AOBIM I will have to take the AOBIM in this specialty even though I’m doing an ACGME fellowship. Currently the only way would be to go back and take the ABIM IM and General Cards boards which is certainly not appealing and I’m not even sure possible for me since my programs were AOA at the time of my graduation.

I’m hoping some sort of pathway opens up to allow those of us in our position to sit for the relevant ABIM sub-specialty boards coming from prior AOBIM. I’m not holding out much hope as both are separate entities which both would like to continue collecting member fees from us.