ABIM Blog (03/11/24)

An ABIM blog post discusses the organization's Approval Committees, whose contributions are key to developing assessments. The committees review, revise and approve all questions on ABIM assessments. In addition, they maintain the guidelines for the initial certification, the 10-year Maintenance of Certification (MOC) and the Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment in Internal Medicine and its subspecialties. Hundreds of seasoned physicians volunteer for Item-writing Task Forces to write questions for the assessments. When complete, the drafts are sent to the appropriate Approval Committee for a comprehensive review. Each question is evaluated for clarity, to make sure the clinical scenario is realistic, for clear rationales and to ensure there is only one correct answer. "The thing that strikes me about the examination approval committee's work is its rigor," said Ryan Maves, MD, FCCM, FCCP, FIDSA, a member of the Critical Care Medicine Traditional, 10-year MOC Exam Approval Committee. “Everyone has a commitment to making sure that the test is a fair and accurate assessment of intensivists' medical knowledge. Our goal is to make sure that every question is relevant to modern practice, reflects current evidence and is consistent with existing guidelines, when relevant." Furman McDonald, MD, MPH, ABIM's senior vice president for academic and medical affairs, also noted that "by mentoring the Item-writing Task Force members and working with the Specialty Boards, all of which are made up of practicing diplomates in the field, the Approval Committees are an important part of ABIM governance and central to the success of the LKA and long form assessments."

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