What are ABEM's Mission and Purposes?

What is ABEM? 

The American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) is one of 24 medical specialty certification boards recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. ABEM board certifies emergency physicians who meet its educational, professional standing, and examination standards. ABEM certification is sought and earned by emergency physicians on a voluntary basis; ABEM is not a membership association. 

ABEM Mission

The ABEM mission is to ensure the highest standards in the specialty of Emergency Medicine. 

ABEM Purposes

ABEM’s purposes are:

• To improve the quality of emergency medical care
• To establish and maintain high standards of excellence in Emergency Medicine and subspecialties
• To enhance medical education in the specialty of Emergency Medicine and related subspecialties
• To evaluate physicians and promote professional development through initial and continuous certification in Emergency Medicine and its subspecialties
• To certify physicians who have demonstrated special knowledge and skills in Emergency Medicine and its subspecialties
• To enhance the value of certification for ABEM diplomates
• To serve the public and medical profession by reporting the certification status of the diplomates of the American Board of Emergency Medicine

In-training Examination Overview

Like some other American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) member boards, ABEM develops and administers an InTraining Examination. It is offered annually on the last Wednesday in February to all ACGME-accredited and RCPSC-accredited Emergency Medicine residency programs for a small fee. Programs are not required to participate in this In Service examination

The ABEM inservice examination targets the expected knowledge base and experience of an EM3 resident. Unlike other ABEM examinations, the in-training examination does not have a passing score. It is a standardized examination that residents and program faculty can use to judge an individual resident’s progress toward successful ABEM certification. There is a strong relationship between in-training and qualifying examination scores. Physicians with higher in-training scores have a higher likelihood of passing the qualifying examination and those with lower scores have a lower likelihood of passing the qualifying examination.


The examination is not designed for program evaluation, and the results should not be used to compare programs or residents across programs.

Preparing for the ABEM Inservice Examination using AAEM Emergency Medicine Textbook

Emergency medicine (EM) residency graduates need to pass both the written in service examination and oral certification exam as the final benchmark to achieve board certification through The American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM).  Following the successful completion of an accredited emergency medicine residency, candidates for board certification take the written abem inservice examination in the fall after graduation as the first step to becoming an ABEM board diplomate.  If successful in this first step, candidates will take the oral certification exam in the spring or fall of the following year.

Many residents and recent graduates spend a significant amount of time and money preparing for the board exams.  As a result, EMRA would like to help you to make informed decisions about how best to spend your time and money preparing for the boards. As EMRA neither produces nor promotes any specific board review product, the EMRA Board of Directors has sponsored a survey of recent graduates to assess their overall preparation for the boards and their opinions and comments about specific board review products that they may have used during their preparations.  Every effort was made to include a comprehensive list of all textbooks, review courses, tutoring, and online products available. 

Preparation:

Many residencies seek to prepare their residents by including written (67%) and oral board (85%) preparation activities.  The majorities of the written board preparation activities occurs around the in-service exam (50%), but are often spread throughout the academic calendar. Similarly, residency-sponsored oral board review sessions are clustered around an annual educational activity, such as a retreat (36%), or are administered on a quarterly basis (33%). For this reason AAEM spent two years developing a comprehensive written board review AAEM Emergency Medicine Textbook. Emergency Medicine: A Focused Review of the Core Curriculum is a 22-chapter text like the Rivers emergency medicine textbook written by experts on each topic and targeted at graduating EM residents, emergency physicians approaching recertification and EM residents taking the annual in-service exam. The AAEM textbook also serves as a comprehensive review of emergency medicine for the motivated medical student. The book includes color images and a 225 question practice in-service examination.

The AAEM Emergency Medicine Textbook

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) is the specialty society of emergency medicine. AAEM is a democratic organization committed to great principles.

AAEM is proud to be celebrating 20 years at the specialty society of emergency medicine. We kicked off the celebration at the 19th Annual Scientific Assembly in Las Vegas in February and will be highlighting AAEM's history and founders throughout 2013.

AAEM spent two years developing a comprehensive written board review AAEM Emergency Medicine Textbook. Emergency Medicine: A Focused Review of the Core Curriculum is a 22-chapter text like the Rivers emergency medicine textbook written by experts on each topic and targeted at graduating EM residents, emergency physicians approaching recertification and EM residents taking the annual in-service exam. The AAEM textbook also serves as a comprehensive review of emergency medicine for the motivated medical student. The book includes color images and a 225 question practice in-service examination.

ABEM In Service Examination

Like some other American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) member boards, ABEM LLSA develops and administers an in-training examination (or In Service Examination). It is offered annually on the last Wednesday in February to all ACGME-accredited and RCPSC-accredited Emergency Medicine residency programs for a small fee. Programs are not required to participate in this examination.

The examination targets the expected knowledge base and experience of an EM3 resident. Unlike other LLSA ABEM examinations, the in-training examination does not have a passing score. It is a standardized examination that residents and program faculty can use to judge an individual resident’s progress toward successful ABEM In Service Examination. There is a strong relationship between in-training and qualifying examination scores. Physicians with higher in-training scores have a higher likelihood of passing the qualifying examination and those with lower scores have a lower likelihood of passing the qualifying examination.

AAEM Emergency Medicine Textbook

The powerful AAEM Emergency Medicine Textbook is organized in a succinct outline format featuring updated emergency medicine board review content and more than 500 pre-chapter questions and answers. It is an excellent source of reference and review for the Qualifying or In service examination. This book features:

• A comprehensive review of the core content of emergency medicine!
• Highly focused text leaves out superfluous information
• Specially designed sections that address trends from past exams
• Packed with hundreds of pictures, mnemonics, and case scenarios this book will make exam prep more efficient and effective for the busy emergency physician
• Strategic layout to promote retention of key concepts
• Tabbed for quick reference    
• Chapters in order of most-tested to least-tested content
• "Crash course review" final chapter to maximize score immediately before exam
• With its extensive breadth of key EM points, this will undoubtedly become a great asset in your reference catalog

Who is ABEM Certified?

The American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), as well as many other ABMS member boards, has taken the position that the term “board eligible” will not be used to define a physician’s status with the Board. ABEM informs a physician who submits an application if he/she has met the credential requirements of the Board and then informs the physician of his/her assignment to take the qualifying examination.

The certification process consists of two examinations, the qualifying examination and an oral certification examination. A physician must pass the qualifying examination in order to be scheduled for an oral certification examination. A physician must pass both examinations to become certified as an ABEM  diplomate. Certification is for a period of ten years. Certificates are dated from the date of the examination results letter or December 31 of the year in which the physician took the examination, whichever is earlier, through December 31 ten years hence.

In order to maintain ABEM certification beyond the dates of the certificate, ABEM diplomates must participate in ABEM MOC, a program for continuous certification. For more information about meeting ABEM MOC, please click below.

https://www.abem.org/public/general-information/who-is-abem-certified-/who-is-abem-certified-