ABEM Rectification or ConCert Examination

ABEM diplomates are required to pass the ABEM recertification examination that assesses knowledge, judgment, and skills on the emergency medicine board review once in years six through ten of their certification. The examination is referred to as the ConCert™ Examination or the ABEM ConCert Exam.

Key Features of the ConCert™ Examination

• Comprehensive, multiple-choice question examination that takes approximately five and one-quarter hours to complete.
• Comprised of questions focused on what the practicing emergency physician needs to know when treating patients. Sample Examination Questions.
• Questions derived from The Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine (EM Model).
• Secure, proctored examination administered at over 200 computer-based Pearson VUE testing centers around the United States and Canada.
• Physicians register for the ConCert™ Examination through their ABEM MOC Personal Page, then schedule a specific appointment with Pearson VUE to take the examination.
• Passing the ConCert™ Examination early does not renew the diplomate’s certificate. Diplomates can register and take the exam during the scheduled ConCert™ exam administration in years six through ten of their certification.
• Diplomates are not required to meet other MOC requirements to take the ConCert™ Examination. However, certification can only be renewed if all MOC requirements are met.

For more information and ConCert exam preparation see the link below:

https://www.abem.org/public/abem-maintenance-of-certification-%28moc%29/moc-assessment-of-knowledge-judgement-and-skills/concert%28tm%29-examination-overview

In-Training Examination Requirements and Process

The purpose of the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) In-training Examination (ITE) is to provide one piece of information to Emergency Medicine (EM) residents, and their faculty, to supplement other evaluation information that may be used to determine the residents’ degree of preparedness for taking the ABEM Qualifying Examination.

The ABEM ITE is available to:

Physicians enrolled in EM residency programs that are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC).

Physicians enrolled in ABEM approved EM/FM, EM/IM, EM/IM/CCM, and EM/Peds combined training programs

Physicians who have advance-matched into such a program

See the Policy on In Service Examination Accessibility for more information.

For residents and advance-matched physicians of newly accredited ACGME programs, the ACGME accreditation decision must be made on or before November 1 of the year prior to the examination administration in order to be eligible to take the ITE.

ABEM board mails ITE registration information to all residency programs in early December, prior to the administration each year. Participating residency programs pay the established examination fee [https://www.abem.org/public/news-notices-exam-dates-fees/important-dates-information/emergency-medicine-examinations-dates-and-fees/in-training-examination-dates-and-fees] for each resident registered to take the In Training Exam in their program. ABEM does not communicate directly with residents in this process.

Programs that participate in an In-service Exam administration will receive detailed examination results for all of their enrolled residents who took the examination.

The Board will be conducting a voluntary pilot of the online administration of the ITE as part of the regular 2016 ITE administration on February 24, 2016; please click here for more information.


Reference: https://www.abem.org/public/emergency-medicine-training/in-training-examination/in-training-examination-requirements-and-process

Meeting the ConCert Exam LLSA Requirements

Part II of your ABEM MOC requirements is Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment, or LLSA.

To complete it, you must:

Pass four LLSA tests in years 1 through 5 of your certification and four Emergency Medicine ConCert review in years 6 through 10 of your certification, and report 25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ per year, eight of which must be "self assessment,” averaged over each five-year period. The Patient Safety LLSA is required for all diplomates whose certificates expire in 2017 and will replace one of the eight self-assessment requirements.

All CME must be related to your practice. Types of CME that are considered to be equivalent to AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ include AAFP Prescribed Credit, ACOG Cognates, and AOA Category 1-A Credits. Examples of self-assessment and ABEM Recertification activities are:

• Activities that have a testing component, particularly a post-test
• Activities that are simulation-based, during which feedback is provided
• The LLSA Concert Exam CME activities
• Activities that use external assessment methods and standards
• CME activities involving patient and peer review
• Practice Improvement Modules (PIMs), Self-Assessment Modules (SAMs), and similarly designed CME activities that are offered by other medical specialty boards

Your deadlines for completing these requirements depend on your certification expiration date.To check your own certification status and requirements, visit the ABEM website and log on to ABEM MOC Online. 

Read More: http://www.acep.org/content.aspx?id=34528

LLSA ConCert Examination

ABEM diplomates are required to pass an examination that assesses cognitive expertise once in years six through ten of their certification. The examination is referred to as the ConCert™ Examination (or LLSA Concert Exam).

Key Features of the ConCert Examination

• Comprehensive, multiple-choice question examination that takes approximately five and one-quarter hours to complete.
• Comprised of questions focused on what the practicing emergency physician needs to know when treating patients.
• Questions derived from The Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine (EM Model).
• Secure, proctored examination administered at over 200 computer-based Pearson VUE testing centers around the United States and Canada.
• Physicians register for the ConCert™ Examination through their ABEM MOC Personal Page, then schedule a specific appointment with Pearson VUE to take the examination.
• Passing the ConCert™ Examination early does not renew the diplomate’s certificate. Diplomates can register and take the exam during the scheduled ConCert™ exam administration in years six through ten of their certification.
• Diplomates are not required to meet other MOC requirements to take the ABEM recertification  exam. However, certification can only be renewed if all MOC requirements are met.

Taking the ConCert™ Examination

Information needed to prepare for and take the emergency medicine concert review can be found in the Information for ConCert™ Examination Candidates book. It also contains information related to scheduling, rescheduling, or canceling an examination appointment.

ConCert™ Examination Quick Facts

• 92% of physicians taking the 2014 ConCert™ Examination see value in the recertification process
• Emergency physician performance on the ConCert™ Examination suggests that emergency physicians maintain diagnostic processing and medical knowledge over the course of their careers.
• EM Milestones studies demonstrated validity and reliability as an assessment instrument for competency acquisition

Reference: https://www.abem.org/public/abem-maintenance-of-certification-%28moc%29/moc-assessment-of-cognitive-expertise/concert%28tm%29-examination-overview

Preparing for the ABEM Emergency Medicine Board Exams

Background:

Emergency medicine (EM) residency graduates need to pass both the written qualifying exam and oral certification exam as the final benchmark to achieve ABEM 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 qualifying exam in the fall after graduation as the first step to becoming an ABEM 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 using emergency medicine board review.  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. 

The objectives of the survey are to:

1) Determine the amount of residency and individual preparation, 

2) Determine the extent of the use of various board review products, and 

3) Elicit evaluations of the various board review products used for the ABEM qualifying and certification exams.

Methods:

EM residency graduates from the past three years who were members of EMRA upon their graduation from residency were surveyed via email. There are approximately 900 residents graduating from residency each year with 95% of these graduates being EMRA members.  Residents were sent an introductory email explaining the survey and three follow-up emails with links to the online survey.  A total of 520 graduates completed the survey corresponding to a response rate of approximately 19%. 

Respondents were asked about the presence of formalized educational activities within residency training for the written and oral board exams, frequency of formalized training sessions, average numbers of hours per week spent studying for the boards.  They were asked to comment upon the numbers and types of board review products used.  For each product, respondents were asked to rate the quality of content; quality of the figures and photos; level of detail; relevance of practice questions; ease of use; value for time and money; and overall impression.

Reference: https://www.emra.org/resources/preparing-for-the-boards/

In Training and Inservice Exam

The In Training Examination is similar in emphasis and format to the Certification Examination.  It consists of items written to test core knowledge and patient management skills in eight major areas:  Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, Community Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Geriatrics and Gynecology.  Physicians who write the test items, as well as the members of the special committee who review them, include both practicing clinicians and teachers in Family Medicine residency programs.

Emergency Medicine (EM) residents take the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) intraining exam, and performance on this exam has been shown to correlate to performance on the ABEM qualifying exam. Residents value the in-training exam as a marker of their academic progress and for their ability to gain familiarity with the qualifying exam. They prefer question-based preparation over text-based learning, as long as there is a detailed explanation of each answer. Educators creating structured in-training review may want to focus on question-based material with detailed explanations.

Internal medicine residents are inadequately prepared for EM topics that they feel are important to their education, specifically airway management, ophthalmology, environmental emergencies and orthopedics.

Annual inservice exam is a yearly test that aims to prepare residents for their formal board exams at the end of residency training. Residents must find time in their busy clinical schedules to study for exams, using a combination of textbooks and board review questions. This in service examination helps residents to obtain their emergency medicine certificates in their busy work schedules.

The annual American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) in-training examination is a tool to assess resident progress and knowledge.

The Emergency Medicine Certificate (EMC) is a six month competency-based training program that is conducted in the workplace. Candidates are required to be working within an emergency department under the supervision of an approved ACEM Supervisor who has completed the Clinical Teaching Course.

Reference: http://www.imedicalapps.com/2013/04/emergency-medicine-board-review-question-bank-app-ios-android/

Emergency Medicine ConCert Review Course

Generally ABEM ConCert Exam review courses offer a comprehensive review for physicians preparing for a certification, recertification or in-service exam. Many physicians and advanced practice providers who treat urgent medical conditions attend these courses for continuous certification and a review of the core content of emergency medicine. The goal of the course to help participants pass their exams - drives the content.

Now, generally EM review course helps to-

• Start with a briefing on the concert exam, including the oral exam techniques; note-taking; and organizational tips
• Move into a strict simulation of the actual oral examination
• More intensive preparation and more detailed tips and strategies for effective exam technique
• Extra information and training to help you better understand the exam process, including the eOral, and build confidence.

We can say that popular em review courses generally follow the pattern and methods of ABEM recertification courses and help physicians to get ABEM certificates.

Emergency Medicine (EM) is a relatively new specialty within medicine that is expanding at a phenomenal pace throughout the globe.

Emergency medicine is a medical specialty involving care for adult and pediatric patients with acute illnesses or injuries that require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency physicians, who usually have a D.O. or M.D. degree, diagnose a variety of illnesses and undertake acute interventions to resuscitate and stabilize patients. Emergency medicine physicians generally practice in hospital emergency departments, pre-hospital settings via emergency medical services, other locations where initial medical treatment of illness takes place, and recently the intensive-care unit. Just as clinicians operate by immediacy rules under large emergency systems, emergency practitioners aim to diagnose emergent conditions and stabilize the patient for definitive care.

Read More: http://www.icep.org/cme-conference/oral-board-review/