ABIM Blog (03/24/23)
The American Board of Internal Medicine's Nephrology Board has issued a call for comment from diplomates on proposed revisions to nephrology initial certification procedural requirements. A summer 2022 survey of program directors of all Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited nephrology fellowships determined that trainees underestimated the knowledge they must possess to be effective in practice. Respondents highlighted the need for outpatient follow-ups for transplant patients and competency issues in certain procedures that might be performed often early in fellowships, only to decline later. Most concurred about the need to maintain or strengthen requirements for acute hemodialysis, continuous renal replacement therapy, chronic outpatient hemodialysis and chronic outpatient peritoneal dialysis. Opinion diverged on whether to retain, eliminate, amend or offer training opportunities for temporary vascular access for hemodialysis and related procedures (non-tunneled dialysis catheter) and percutaneous biopsy of autologous and transplanted kidney. The Nephrology Board incorporated feedback from various stakeholders and a report from the American Society of Nephrology's Task Force on the Future of Nephrology into an impact statement outlining draft requirements. The statement describes an opportunity to train standard as being comprised "of both a knowledge requirement of training all fellows in the indications, contraindications, risks and benefits of the procedure and a requirement to provide the opportunity to train in the procedure to the level of competent and independent performance for those fellows who request the training." The period to comment on the proposed changes is open until June 1, 2023.
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