A Look Ahead

Dear Fellow Diplomates & Members,

Over the past several years, under the leadership of your Board of Directors, led by numerous talented and visionary Presidents, this organization has been reshaping its focus to be more responsive to your needs.

Four years ago, the Board approved the Strategic Plan which placed the primary mission of the AAPS to serving you and providing our Diplomats with quality Board Certification. To focus our energy and your financial resources on primary concerns, the Board conducted an analysis of the administration and operations of the AAPS. After careful analysis of operational efficiency, we identified opportunities, implemented changes for increased organizational efficiency, and effectiveness while decreasing the cost of doing business. These changes are allowing us to shift resources to activities in the organization that will have a direct impact on you and your ability to continue the practice of high-quality medicine.

Over the past four years, since the Strategic Plan was approved, we have not only reached most of our short-term goals but have achieved them in advance or exceeded them. In addition, the cost saving measures we have taken have enabled us to refocus our efforts where it belongs, which is on our external affairs and recognition services. We are continuing to implement the Strategic Plan which includes an analysis of our finances and the development of metrics to help us measure the cost of business and ensure greater accountability.

The past two years have challenged our organization. By being nimble and with great leadership, we were able to transition quickly acquiring better technology that meets the needs of our Diplomates. With COVID challenging much of what we do, our Tampa leadership and team rose to the occasion and quickly moved to virtual Academy and Board of Certification meetings seamlessly. In addition, we successfully executed virtual exams for boards with oral testing. Many of these changes may have taken much longer in a larger organization. We look forward to finding a balance between having opportunities for our leaders and Diplomates to meet face-to-face and managing other business aspects of the ABPS through more efficient and cost-effective platforms.

Our Strategic Planning Committee, under the leadership of Dr. Judy Smith is working to evaluate the relevance of the strategic plan for today’s environment. They are prioritizing and implementing strategies outlined in the plan to continue to meet our Diplomate’s needs in this fast-paced new world we live in. Some of these strategies include strengthening our internal resources to provide more support to our members in areas of recognition and credentialing. We are providing greater support to our Boards of Certification by having one staff member dedicated to Board needs. We are evaluating the relevance of

our annual meeting and CME. Spearheaded by President Dr. Elizabeth Maxwell-Schmidt, we established an Academy to help identify and train future leaders. We are looking at the organizational structure to reduce redundancy, volunteer fatigue, and cost while allowing the leadership to focus time and resources on better supporting our Diplomates.

My goals for this coming year are to continue to support the transformation of this organization so that we can become an organization focused on quality physician Board Certification that meets the needs of the 21st Century. We will do this by having a solid financial model, making changes based on data and sound business principles and by looking for new opportunities to meet the fast-changing medical environment. This new model will allow us to monitor changing needs such as Board Recertification and implement changes that are relevant and keep our Diplomates functioning at the highest levels of quality within their chosen specialties.

The future of the ABPS will also depend on our Diplomates using their energy in the most efficient and impactful way to help our organization continue to provide quality certification, identify potential new Diplomates, and seek out opportunities to provide new Boards of Certification as the medical landscape and the needs of patients change. The success of this organization will be based on our ability to support you, and this can only be done by an organization that values your time, skills, money and your talent.

I am proud to serve you as your President for this coming year, and I encourage you to continue to take pride in your Certification by sharing your journey with your colleagues.

Jerry A. Allison, MD, MSH, CPE, FAAEP

ABPS FEATURED ON KevinMD Podcast

AAPS CEO Jeff Morris, JD, and ABPS Diplomate Manny Konstantakos, MD, recently appeared on The Podcast by KevinMD to discuss the importance of physicians having options in board certification.

Integrative Medicine Taxonomy Code Approved

The American Board of Integrative Medicine has successfully applied for an integrative medicine taxonomy code from the National Uniform Claim Committee (NUCC) for allopathic and osteopathic integrative physicians. The code was included in the January 1, 2022, release of changes to the NUCC code set and became effective April 1, 2022.

Kepro Recognizes ABPS

Kepro recently updated their polices to accept ABPS board certified physicians. Kepro provides technology-enabled services for priority populations to help them remain in the home or community of their choice. They partner with government and private healthcare payers to maximize healthcare quality, improve accuracy, and increase efficiency.

FEDERAL REGULATORY AND LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITIES

Albeit COVID presented challenges to the external affairs team requiring a shift of focus, it allowed us to greatly advance our recognition and influencer strategies led by Mr. Jeff Morris, JD and our public affairs consultant, Monique Tapie. Their deep understanding of the certification landscape allowed them to build strong collaboration with one of the largest and most politically influential police unions and organizations in the country. Key boards are building a roadmap of the partnership to further build support of our boards of certification before influencers that can help to enact change.

With federal legislators focusing on COVID, it presented our team with new opportunities to address barriers that have increased due to the ongoing monopoly’s discriminatory practices damaging patient access to care.

Focus also increased before federal representatives with influence over the key departments and regulatory bodies to bring awareness to the monopoly’s activities within these entities that create greater barriers to access of physician care not only within private sector hospitals and insurers but those being placed before our servicemen and women that already suffer a great physician shortage within our military branches.

AAPS FINANCIAL UPDATE

The financial results for AAPS for the year ending December 31, 2021, were record breaking! We ended the year with net income of approximately $790,000 and cash balance of $2,489,000. This performance was due to revenues greatly outweighing expenses. Revenues for the year ending 2021 of $3,239,000 while total expenses for the year came in at $2,449,000. These lowered expenses were the result of a virtual annual meeting and the first full year of cost containment strategies started over 3 years ago. Additionally, the revenues will be used to reinvest in our organization and Diplomates for increased recognition, growth and sustainability of Boards.

NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATION

The team built a strong relationship with the State Health Chair and other key legislators wishing to combat the discriminatory language within the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact to be more inclusive. In addition, the work on this issue of Mr. Morris and Ms. Tapie culminated in Mr. Morris being a key witness to testify before multiple committee representatives on Barriers to Physician Access within New York State during COVID. This testimony has now become the driving force behind greater support of the ABPS and a much larger strategy and push to break down the monopoly.

2022 has now presented our team with greater opportunities to strengthen our organization and our boards of certification. Our dedicated team is passion is the driving force in the growth of the ABPS boards of certification, especially as they continue to build upon the foundation they have so strongly and successfully established.

ADDITIONAL STATE LEGISLATION

During this year’s legislative session ABPS lobbied on 62 bills in 24 states. There were 27 bills that included ABMS and only one incorporated ABPS. Our national lobbyist, Linda Murphy, successfully killed 13 of these bills and prevented ABMS from being listed exclusively in law. ABPS was also able to successfully defeat the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact bill in Virginia. Currently, most of the other bills are still in the beginning phases of the legislative process.

New Certification Programs

Interventional Pain Management, which will be under the administration of the Board of Certification in Anesthesiology (BCA), has been in development since May 2021 and is anticipating their first examination administration in 2023. The Board of Certification in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, for primary care endoscopists who provide high-quality gastrointestinal endoscopy services primarily in rural and underserved areas, is the latest program to be approved for development. They will hold their job task analysis workshop in August 2022 and anticipate administering their first exam in 2024.

Recent Certification Updates

Newly updated exam blueprints for Integrative Medicine and Family Medicine Obstetrics were administered to initial certification and recertification candidates in May 2022. The Family Medicine Obstetrics exam blueprint was evaluated and updated to offer a new certification pathway for family physicians who provide obstetrics care but do not perform cesarean deliveries and serves as the written exam component for certification in Family Medicine Obstetrics with Surgical Qualification. The Emergency Medicine Written Exam Committee kicked off their blueprint update with a job task analysis workshop in May 2022 and expect to administer their first examination utilizing the new blueprint in 2024.

Doximity Now Recognizes ABPS

Doximity, the largest community network of healthcare professionals in the country, now recognizes ABPS board certification. ABPS Diplomates now have their ABPS board certification/s included in their Doximity profile. ABPS uses Doximity to inform physicians of having a choice in certification opportunities.

ABPS Messaging on Doximity

We’re expanding awareness of the APBS on Doximity. We ran 8 total announcements in 2021 that targeted a variety of specialties (CEO's/C-Suite Level Administrators, Anesthesiologists, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine Obstetrics, and Internal Medicine physicians). The announcements generated 6,511 unique impressions on the Doximity. Our program is continuing with Doximity in 2022.

VIRTUAL AAPS CME

After the cancellation of the 2021 Annual Meeting, we pivoted to hold our annual CME program virtually for the first time to offer our members a safe and convenient way to earn AAPS CME credits. The program was very successful and allowed participants to earn up to 22 CME credits on-demand. We would like to thank our speakers for their adaptability and valuable educational contributions. Building Brand Awareness

ABPS representatives were excited to return to live in-person medical industry conferences again to further advance the organization’s brand by engaging with the healthcare leaders.

We marketed ABPS at four (4) in-person events and one (1) virtual conference, creating additional awareness of choice in board certification.

As our awareness grows, ABPS has an informational letter that explains how the medical industry has accepted the organization as a choice in board certification. We recommend you share this document with your decision-making leaders encouraging them to expand physician resources for their organization by updating their medical staff bylaws. For more information contact Lauren Henrichsen.

We continue to be hitting benchmarks with website traffic to the ABPS website (www.abpsus.org). We would like to thank all physicians who have participated in a monthly article/topic that has helped drive traffic to the website.

Direct traffic is the highest traffic channel, making up 66% of all sessions.

Organic traffic is the 2nd highest channel which accounts for 31% of the traffic or times that users have visited the site from a search engine like Google.

New BCFMO Pathway Now Offered

To better serve family physicians practicing obstetrics in the United States, the Board of Certification in Family Medicine Obstetrics (BCFMO) has begun offering a new non-surgical path (Family Medicine Obstetrics). This is being offered in addition to its surgical path for certification (Family Medicine Obstetrics with Surgical Qualification). The non-surgical path to certification requires a computer based written test. The surgical path for certification requires the written test and an additional oral examination covering five case studies.

For those interested in applying under the surgical path, the BCFMO provides recognition to fellowships, or residency programs, with substantial and identifiable obstetrics training. Graduates of recognized programs meet one of the eligibility requirements to apply for board certification in family medicine obstetrics. As of today, the BCFMO recognizes 49 programs, 5 of which were approved in the last year.

AAEP FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM UPDATE

The American Academy of Emergency Physicians (AAEP) are actively seeking primary care emergency medicine fellowships amidst the ongoing challenges surrounding the coronavirus. The AAEP recognizes specific fellowships that have achieved a level of training for physicians to demonstrate competency and mastery of the specialty. Today, the AAEP recognizes 13 programs and continues to receive inquiries regarding establishment of programs and recognition.

Over the past year, we have successfully conducted both virtual and hybrid inspections using Zoom. In response to the program directors request and industry standard, we updated the re-inspection timeline from every 2 years to every 3 years. In 2021, the Board of Certification in Emergency Medicine offered both a spring and fall oral exam resulting in 46% of the new EM Diplomates being Fellows of recognized programs. In addition to last year’s new Diplomates, 56% of the August 2022 written exam candidates are Fellows. Completion of an AAEP recognized fellowship is one of the ways for physicians to become eligible to apply for the Board of Certification in Emergency Medicine (BCEM) exam.