Cardiovascular Board Meeting Summary | Fall 2025
The Cardiovascular Board held its fall meeting on October 28, 2025. Representatives from the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American Heart Association (AHA), the American Society of Echocardiography (ASECHO), the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) joined for a portion of the meeting*.
The following is a summary of the fall meeting. Visit the ABIM Blog for reports of prior meetings.
ABIM Leadership Update*
Furman S. McDonald, MD, MPH, President and CEO of ABIM and the ABIM Foundation, discussed progress on ABIM’s strategic initiatives, including:
- Enhancements to the Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA®), such as the possibility of expanded eligibility, developing focused versions in some specialties that will launch in 2026 and exploring additional focused versions in other specialties for the future
- Advancing and expanding ABIM’s research strategy with the appointment of Eric J. Warm, MD, MACP, as the inaugural Vice President of Research Strategy
- Supporting early career physicians and international medical graduates (IMGs) with the needs-based certification exam fee assistance program and the competency-based medical education (CBME) special consideration pathway pilot for IMGs
- Recognizing board-certified physicians at key career milestones, such as attaining more than 30 years of certification, and an end-of-year wrap-up for LKA participants
- Advancing innovation in assessment through new technology and society collaboration
Dr. McDonald reported that more than 90,000 physicians now participate in the LKA. He acknowledged interest among physicians in enrolling in the LKA earlier than their assessment due year and said that ABIM is exploring options for earlier enrollment. He also noted that, as enough physicians are maintaining certification in clinical cardiac electrophysiology, the LKA model is psychometrically feasible in that subspecialty. ABIM publicly announced plans to develop a clinical cardiac electrophysiology LKA in November.
Cardiovascular Board members engaged Dr. McDonald in a broad discussion about the LKA, including question time limits, practice realities and field-specific needs and evolving learning models, including individualized pathways and AI-enabled information retrieval. Dr. McDonald described ABIM’s work with the societies and accreditation organizations to map assessment content to individual learning needs using AI and said ABIM is exploring how to credit learning through trusted digital platforms while preserving assessment integrity. He also affirmed that early-career engagement remains a core priority for ABIM, with multiple active pilots underway.
Health Equity Update*
ABIM remains firmly committed to advancing health equity, as reflected in a joint statement by the ABIM Board of Directors and the ABIM Foundation Board of Trustees dated June 2025. ABIM continues to work in the areas outlined in the Equity Statement: developing health equity content for assessments, working to ensure that assessments are fair and conducting research to advance assessment strategies. ABIM also maintains collaborations with medical specialty societies working to advance health equity. During this session, staff highlighted both the progress achieved and the challenges that remain in ABIM’s ongoing health equity efforts.
Diplomate Professional Profile*
The Cardiovascular Board reviewed the status of ABIM’s Diplomate Professional Profile (DPP), a survey that ABIM Board Certified physicians are asked to complete every five years via the Physician Portal. Data gathered from the DPP will inform exam blueprint updates and help Specialty Boards understand what physicians are doing in practice.
ABIM staff asked for suggestions from the Specialty Board and society guests about modifications to the DPP that would add to the value of the information collected through completion of the survey. Specialty Board members discussed how cardiology practice patterns, clinical focus areas and workforce distribution data can support the evolution of evidence-based assessment as well as an understanding of the workforce. Participants noted that common comorbidities, such as diabetes, span many care domains and congenital cardiac intervention increasingly applies to broader cardiology practice, suggesting that monitoring these practice areas could be beneficial as the field evolves. One Specialty Board member commented that examining geographic workforce representation at the rural/urban level rather than solely at the state level would provide a more meaningful signal.
Adult Congenital Heart Disease Workforce*
The discussion opened with workforce challenges in the tertiary subspecialty of adult congenital heart disease, advocacy and workforce data collection. One member encouraged expanding trainee exposure and suggested that ABIM partner with affiliated organizations to promote the field. Others agreed that ABIM data could help define workforce gaps.
Cardiovascular Board members also discussed broader dynamics of the cardiology workforce. Janice B. Sibley, Executive Vice President of ACC, shared more on ACC’s efforts to extend the cardiovascular workforce by training community health professionals to teach about heart health in their own rural communities in Alaska and New Mexico. The discussion underscored the growing role of advanced practice providers and consideration of how they integrate into care teams and certification. Suggestions included publishing an annual “State of the Specialty” report to help highlight trends and deficits, and that data on utilization and burnout would add necessary context. Specialty Board members supported continued collaboration with professional societies and future research using ABIM data to understand better and address cardiology workforce needs.
Procedural Requirements for Interventional Cardiology*
SCAI representatives, including J. Dawn Abbott, MD, FACC, MSCAI, President-Elect, and John C. Messenger, MD, MSCAI, Secretary of the SCAI Board of Trustees, noted feedback from the interventional community that modern practice is diverse and that volume alone no longer provides a meaningful proxy for competence. The subspecialty of interventional cardiology remains the only procedurally based subspecialty that requires ongoing demonstration of procedural volume. SCAI leadership highlighted that the field has evolved, with quality registries, individual physician dashboards and stronger hospital oversight providing more robust and meaningful measures of proficiency. They also raised concerns about a double standard, as interventional cardiologists must maintain procedural volume to remain certified, unlike other subspecialties such as electrophysiology. This requirement can create workforce challenges, particularly for rural and lower-volume centers, and may force interventional cardiologists to maintain additional certificates to continue practicing cardiology after leaving the Cath lab, a situation not paralleled in other fields.
Specialty Board members suggested that any transition away from numeric thresholds must involve broad stakeholder input, including interventionalists, societies and patient representatives, and Dr. Russo emphasized that next steps would include robust data collection, coordinated messaging and a clear transition plan. Ms. Sibley shared that ACC leadership similarly supports moving away from procedure counts given the availability of more robust registry-based performance measures.
ABIM last changed the procedural requirements for interventional cardiology in 2017, based on data and feedback collected from the interventional and general cardiology physician communities. ABIM will work with the interventional cardiology community to understand trends in procedural performance and oversight in interventional cardiology. ABIM intends to re-examine whether there should continue to be a Maintenance of Certification (MOC) procedural requirement unique to Interventional Cardiology.
Nutrition in Assessment*
The Cardiovascular Board discussed the role of nutrition in patient care and assessment, emphasizing the importance of basing decisions to expand nutrition content in ABIM exams on sound scientific principles. Currently, the nutrition content in assessments varies across specialties.
Specialty Board members noted that while nutrition is a clinically relevant topic with substantial impact on cardiovascular outcomes, translating this domain into defensible assessment content presents challenges. Several members observed that evidence in this space evolves rapidly and that cultural and behavioral factors influence dietary patterns in ways difficult to operationalize into testable constructs. Specialty Board members agreed that future work should remain grounded in high-quality science and avoid oversimplification.
Society representatives departed at this point in the meeting.
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Blueprint Review
Cardiovascular Board members reviewed the proposed percentage allocations for the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Blueprint for the initial certification and traditional, 10-year MOC exams. Staff confirmed that the percentages remained consistent with previously shared materials and stakeholder feedback. Several Specialty Board members indicated support for the proposal, noting that the recommended percentages accurately reflect the breadth, depth and evolving content priorities within the subspecialty. The Specialty Board unanimously voted to approve the blueprint percentages as recommended by the Approval Committee.
Interventional Cardiology LKA Standard-Setting
Cardiovascular Board members received an overview of how standard-setting panels determined the recommended content-based passing score for the Interventional Cardiology LKA. Bradley Brossman, Ph.D., Vice President, Psychometrics for ABIM, described the Angoff Method, explaining that content-based experts estimate where a minimally competent examinee should score. Specialty Board members agreed the methodology is well established but stressed the need to implement any changes carefully to preserve trust and avoid perceptions of retrospective disadvantage.
The Specialty Board voted to set the exam passing score for the 2026 exam administrations.
Candidates for the 2026 Cardiovascular Board
ABIM issued a notice in June about openings for an interprofessional healthcare team member on the Cardiovascular Board for a term beginning July 1, 2026. Specialty Board members review applications and interview candidates, and at the fall meeting, voted on two to recommend to the ABIM Council, which makes the final appointments. ABIM expects to announce appointees in July 2026.
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*Indicates that society representatives were present for discussion of this agenda topic.
