
Chair, Rheumatology Board
The Rheumatology Board, which meets twice a year and is responsible for oversight of policy and assessment in the specialty, held its fall meeting on September 10, 2024. The Specialty Board discussed updates on ABIM’s work in a number of key areas and other pressing issues for the discipline. Representatives from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) joined for a portion of the meeting.*
The following is a summary of the fall meeting. Reports of prior meetings can be found on the ABIM Blog.
Contents
- ABIM News and Conversation with the President*
- Diplomate Professional Profile*
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives at ABIM*
- Updates from the American College of Rheumatology*
- Recommending Candidates for the Specialty Board to ABIM Council
- Learn More
ABIM News and Conversation with the President*
Prior to the meeting, members and guests of the Rheumatology Board had the opportunity to view a recorded video update from Furman S. McDonald, MD, MPH, who assumed the role of President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ABIM and ABIM Foundation on September 1, 2024. Dr. McDonald reflected on current transitions for ABIM as well as key topics for the Specialty Board’s consideration and awareness:
- A proposed pilot model for “exceptionally qualified” international medical graduates pursuing accredited subspecialty fellowship in the U.S. or Canada to become eligible for ABIM Board Certification: ABIM invited commentary from the diplomate community throughout September for the ABIM Council to consider before making a final decision early in 2025, and Dr. McDonald noted that this timing coincides fortuitously with—but is distinct from—similar initiatives for state medical board licensure. Learn more through a video and FAQs on the ABIM website.
- ABIM’s progress in engaging more closely with early career physicians (diplomates who earned initial certification less than 10 years ago): a task force of Governance members is making plans for the coming year to convene early career physicians, create a platform for their perspectives and provide opportunities for them to be more directly involved in ABIM.
- The continued popularity of the Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA®), high rates of reported satisfaction and ongoing enhancements: on average, 80% of eligible diplomates continue to choose the LKA over the traditional, 10-year Maintenance of Certification (MOC) exam, and 70.7% of survey respondents agreed with the statement, “I am satisfied with my LKA experience so far.” Still, Dr. McDonald noted, ABIM continues to evolve and improve the assessment based on diplomate feedback.
- The recently announced removal of the requirement to earn some MOC points every two years to be considered “Participating in MOC.” With the availability of more activities that earn physicians MOC points (e.g., continuing medical education for MOC, UpToDate, the LKA), the Council determined that the two-year point requirement was no longer needed and that its removal would benefit physicians by making the program simpler. The requirement to earn at least 100 MOC points every five years remains in effect.
Some members of the Specialty Board reported feedback from their colleagues about the LKA, such as the proportion of questions on other specialty areas versus rheumatology in the Internal Medicine LKA and the educational value of the rationales offered after most questions. Dr. McDonald pointed out that the proportion of questions is based on the blueprint, and in some cases a perception of more questions in one area can be skewed based on when they appear in the assessment over time. He also confirmed that ABIM has heard similar feedback about the rationales and is working internally to improve the brief post-answer rationales but noted that ABIM is first and foremost an assessment organization.
Carol Langford, MD, MHS, President-elect of ACR, shared that opportunities existed for ACR to develop educational offerings that could be helpful to rheumatologists, focused around areas of potential knowledge gaps identified through the LKA, and she inquired about data gathered from the LKA to date, which ABIM reports in aggregate to societies annually. However, only two years of data are currently available since the launch of the LKA in 2022, and ABIM will continue to work with societies to make the reports more useful.
Diplomate Professional Profile*
In summer 2023, ABIM invited a pilot group of diplomates to complete the newly developed Diplomate Professional Profile (DPP), a questionnaire required of all diplomates that is built into the Physician Portal. The questionnaire relates to clinical work and practice patterns and serves to inform ABIM’s ongoing efforts to update assessment options and exam blueprints and develop policies for initial certification and MOC. Since last year, ABIM has continued to invite all remaining eligible diplomates on a rolling basis to complete the DPP. Siddharta G. Reddy, MPH, Senior Research Associate at ABIM, reported to the Specialty Board that 31% of diplomates overall have completed their DPP; he also reviewed profile questions specific to rheumatology. In response to questions from the group, he clarified that the DPP initiates when diplomates sign in to the Physician Portal, noting that LKA participants are completing the profile at a higher rate because they use the Portal more regularly.
Diplomates are encouraged to log in to their Physician Portal to review the DPP if they have not already done so.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives at ABIM*
Natalie S. Plummer, Esq., Manager, DEI Programs at ABIM, and Pamela White, Senior Vice President, Communications, and Chief DEI Officer, reported on the work of the DEI team at ABIM and recent advances in ABIM’s DEI initiatives. These include:
- ABIM’s work with participating medical society partners, which led to the formation of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Collaborative Network. The goal of the network is to share best practices, coordinate resources and create strategies to support and move diversity work forward as a community dedicated to this work.
- Improvements to the ABIM Physician Portal that now allow diplomates to more accurately self-identify their race/ethnicity and gender with an expanded list of options. This also aligns with ABIM’s efforts to increase diversity in governance and eliminate bias in assessment questions. Since this effort began, ABIM has seen consistent growth in the number of physicians supplying information, with more than 77,000 diplomates updating their information.
- A report led by Dr. Sara Ray, a medical historian from the University of Pennsylvania, to study the governance records of ABIM. The goal of this project was to determine whether ABIM’s practices within the context of the past caused harm to historically disadvantaged groups and whether that might require restorative action and transparency.
Remarks from Specialty Board members focused on ensuring clarity and transparency in communications to diplomates about why ABIM collects race and ethnicity data. Ms. White offered assurance that this is a priority for ABIM and that the data help ABIM better understand the diplomate’s perspective and experience.
The group also discussed how diversity factors into the composition of the Specialty Board and other Governance bodies. For the past several years, Governance at all levels has evolved to make member composition more reflective of the patient population that diplomates serve, including a diversity of races and ethnicities as well as practice settings, medical school backgrounds, ages and career stages, and geographical regions, to name a few.
Updates from the American College of Rheumatology*
Steven Echard, CAE, Executive Vice President of ACR, reported on the latest news from ACR. The society recently formed the Women in Rheumatology Task Force and the Climate Change and Rheumatology Task Force. Mr. Echard also mentioned the new Community Practice Council, which focuses on how ACR confronts issues facing small practices, and the Affiliate Society Council, which collaborates with state societies.
ACR is also expanding online educational opportunities with new activities in both fundamental and advanced rheumatology courses, materials designed to increase minority participation in clinical trials, and several other programs that focus on health equity and rheumatology. In addition, ACR has a new program for medical students. The Leadership Education and Development of Underrepresented in Medicine Medical Students Project (Project LEAD) seeks to engage and educate medical students from underrepresented backgrounds through roundtable sessions focused on rheumatology, work life balance and preparing for a fellowship.
Society guests departed at this point in the meeting.
Recommending Candidates for the Specialty Board to ABIM Council
Each year, ABIM initiates the process to recruit candidates for open seats on the Specialty Boards; each member serves a three-year term with the option for one renewal, and positions open on a rolling basis. ABIM posts all openings on its website and shares them with diplomates and other stakeholder groups. The Specialty Board pays close attention to its own present and future composition, namely how practice setting and region, career stage, educational background (U.S., international) and race and ethnicity are represented among its members. The ABIM Council makes final selections based on the Specialty Board’s top two recommendations for each open seat.
In June, ABIM issued notice about three openings on the Rheumatology Board for terms beginning July 1, 2025. At the fall meeting, the Rheumatology Board discussed the candidates they had interviewed and voted on two for each position to recommend to the Council. ABIM will announce the final appointees in spring 2025 prior to the start of their terms.
Visit ABIM’s website for a full list of current openings. Specialty Board openings are posted in the summer of the year prior to term start dates. Approval Committee openings are posted in the fall.
Learn More
The Rheumatology Board values the feedback and commentary of the entire medical community, including diplomates and society partners.
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