ABIM’s New Vice President for Research Strategy Comes in Asking Questions

Eric Warm, MD, MACP, has been named the inaugural Vice President for Research Strategy at ABIM. Dr. Warm is an internist, researcher and educator whose career has in large part been devoted to using assessment to improve physician learning and patient care—two interrelated goals that will be the central tenet of his work with ABIM.

But first and foremost, he’s asking questions.

“What if,” he posits, “in addition to measuring competence, ABIM could create tools or processes to help you improve competence in a way that accounts for the variability in the way people receive information?”

That’s just one question. In the months ahead, Dr. Warm will be leading the team that identifies and prioritizes research questions about assessment, how physicians learn and how assessment can help physicians learn better and improve the way they care for patients.

“We know from many studies that as knowledge increases, the quality of care increases,” he continues. “That association is strong. The better we as physicians do on the board exam, the better care we can give. But for those who are not in the higher scoring range, how are they going to get better? We can and should create processes to help physicians get better.”

Dr. Warm has already undertaken work with a similar goal through a collaborative project he cofounded at the University of Cincinnati. The Research in Assessment Designed to Improve Care And Learning (RADICAL) Lab, which aims to create a tool or a set of processes that measure performance and offer residents paths to improve that performance. The RADICAL Lab designed a prototype tool called ResDash which will gather data, measuring things like workplace-based assessment, clinical outcomes, self-assessment, patient surveys and evaluations to help create positive behavior change in residency programs.

Behind that project is a decades-long career of exploring questions in medical education and assessment. Dr. Warm completed his residency and a year as chief resident at the University of Cincinnati in 1997 before joining the faculty as assistant professor of internal medicine and associate program director of the Categorical Internal Medicine Residency. He has served as an attending internist and held a variety of leadership roles, including as program director since 2009 and Vice Chair for Graduate Medical Education since 2015.

Over the years, Dr. Warm has published and presented widely seeking answers to questions that are integral to medical education and assessment. “For me, the most important thing is not to gather data, but to give it to another person, sit with them and see if we can move them forward. That’s what has been motivating me for the last few years.”

In his new role, that philosophy persists as he considers how to guide strategic research with meaningful outcomes for physicians and the public, asking the same kinds of questions that have driven his research for decades.

“In addition to knowledge, are there other things that assessment could measure that would reflect someone’s performance? Can we use knowledge plus those things to help somebody get better? Who can we help with new tools? How do we improve the value of certification? With all humility, I don’t know. But my first order of business is to sit and listen.”

In his life outside of work, Dr. Warm explores outlets both creative and closely tied to his love of all things measured. “I play the guitar, I write narrative fiction, I like exercise—I’m a Peloton fanatic. I love anything that measures anything,” he says.

“I tell people I have two skills: I’m creative and I’m persistent, which helps me stay on task. I’ve never done anything quite like this job before and I hope to succeed. I know I will be persistent. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about failure and that if you have to fail, fail fast, fail often—and learn. Learn the whole time.”

Dr. Warm’s appointment as Vice President for Research Strategy is effective September 1, 2025.