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We all do it. We find something interesting online, take a screenshot of it and share it with our friends on social media. 

But when it comes to ABIM’s assessment questions, sharing them online—either via a screenshot, keying them in or discussing them publicly—has real consequences. 

While the advent of social media makes sharing easy, it is also a good reminder that writing down assessment questions or topics and sharing them in any format with others (sometimes referred to as recall topics or questions) is prohibited.  

Whether taking an assessment in a test center or participating in the online Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA®), all ABIM Board Certified physicians and candidates agree to the Copyright and Examination Non-Disclosure Policy whereby they commit to refrain from sharing the content in any format. There are good reasons this policy exists: 

  • Patients trust board certification as a way to know their physician is current in their medical knowledge. Sharing content limits the assessment’s ability to distinguish physicians who are truly staying current from those who are not and thus erodes trust in the physicians participating in the assessment and the entire profession.  
  • ABIM’s assessments are designed to test an individual physician’s medical knowledge against the same standard. If someone has prior knowledge of an assessment question, it not only calls their own knowledge into question, but it also creates fairness issues for all physicians taking that assessment, especially for those that do not have that prior knowledge. 
  • A rigorous process exists for creating, administering, scoring and validating ABIM questions and assessments. Developing meaningful and high-quality questions takes a lot of effort. Hundreds of physicians take time out of their professional lives to write and review questions before they appear on an ABIM assessment. When questions are discarded due to exposure through professional misconduct, it places an unfair burden on physician colleagues who must work to replace those discarded questions.  

For Certification and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Exam Takers 

ABIM uses data forensic techniques to detect patterns that suggest instances of topic- or question-sharing. You should not recall and share any of the questions or topics you’ve seen on the assessment with others.  

For LKA Participants 

As an online assessment, it may be tempting to screenshot LKA questions or show your screen to a colleague, or to transcribe/transmit an entire question into an artificial intelligence (AI) tool. ABIM regularly conducts rigorous statistical analysis of physician performance on the LKA for patterns consistent with prior knowledge of questions and monitors for instances of questions being shared outside of the assessment platform, including AI tools.  

Consequences of Sharing Assessment Content 

It’s important to know that the Copyright and Examination Non-Disclosure Policy articulates that disclosing or using ABIM assessment content in any way, including social media sharing, constitutes professional misconduct. This may expose you to criminal as well as civil liability and may also result in ABIM’s imposition of penalties against those involved. Penalties include, but are not limited to, invalidations of test results, exclusion from future examinations, and suspension or revocation of board certification. All of these provisions are in place in order to maintain the integrity of board certification. 

How to Give Feedback on Assessment Content 

There may be times when you don’t agree with a question or think it could be written better or you just want to tell ABIM what content should be covered on the assessment. If this happens, ABIM wants to hear about it.  

Here are the best ways to share your feedback:  

  • After completing the certification examination or a traditional, 10-year MOC exam, you’ll be asked to complete a post-assessment survey where you can provide comments on exam content.  
  • When taking the LKA, you can provide feedback on any individual question after answering it using the Give Feedback option on the next screen. More general feedback can be provided on the annual survey sent to all LKA participants. 
  • Another opportunity to provide feedback on what is relevant to your practice is through ABIM’s blueprint review process. The blueprints in each specialty undergo major review about every five years and you have been or will be invited to participate. ABIM encourages you to take the time to respond to these invitations. 
  • You can also contact ABIM anytime at 1-800-441-ABIM (2246) or request@abim.org to share feedback.  

On behalf of the profession, and the more than 270,000 ABIM Board Certified physicians across the world, thank you for upholding the highest values of professionalism and protecting the integrity of certification exams.