Members Only | 07.31.25
ABMS Board Certification: A Trusted Credential
By Jen Michael, ABMS Chief Operating Officer
Just as Medical Services Professionals (MSPs) are responsible for the credentialing and recredentialing of physicians and allied health practitioners, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) — in partnership with its 24 Member Boards — is responsible for setting standards for board certification to ensure that physicians and medical specialists , known as diplomates, have the knowledge, judgment, and skills to practice safely and skillfully within their chosen specialty.
Board certification by one or more ABMS Member Boards indicates that a diplomate has gone above and beyond basic medical training to demonstrate proficiency in a particular specialty. And while board certification is not required to practice medicine, the fact that nearly one million physicians and medical specialists in this country have chosen to become board-certified speaks to its value.
Continuing Certification
Continuing certification is an evolution of maintenance of certification. In principle, they serve the same purpose: to support diplomates in keeping their skills sharp and knowledge current.
In 2021, the ABMS Board of Directors approved new Standards for Continuing Certification, effective Jan. 1, 2024. The standards reflect recommendations made in 2019 by an independent commission — the Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future Commission — calling for the member boards to create formative processes that offer opportunities for learning and improvement, and an alternative to the secure, point-in-time examinations of knowledge.
As part of the continuing certification program, the 10-year, high-stakes exam was replaced by modular or longitudinal formative assessments that support learning by providing timely feedback on performance, identifying gaps in knowledge, and encouraging engagement in improving the health of patients and healthcare provided in the systems in which the diplomates work.
Moreover, formative assessments taken over several years are used by the boards to reach a summative decision about a diplomate’s certification status. This important second step in the certification process aligns the learning with demonstrated specialty knowledge and judgment. Research shows that these formative assessments have helped diplomates gain medical knowledge that directly impacts patient care.
Program Participation
Because the member boards offer specialty-specific continuing certification programs, not ABMS, it is the boards that ensure their diplomates are participating in the program at the individual level. At the board level, ABMS has an ongoing, robust process to validate that the boards are meeting the continuing certification standards.
MSPs can check whether a diplomate is participating in continuing certification by going to the diplomate’s credentials profile using either an ABMS Solutions product or a product that their organization uses to verify physician certification. A profile typically includes the status of all the diplomate’s specialty (and subspecialty, if any) certificates from a certifying board. For each specialty and subspecialty certificate listed, either a “yes,” “no,” or “not required” response is given as to whether that diplomate is participating in the continuing certification program of their board(s).
A display of “no” could indicate that the diplomate has chosen not to fulfill continuing certification requirements for that certificate. A display of “not required” means that certification was achieved in that specialty before the board established its continuing certification program, and therefore participation is not required. If continuing certification status information is missing from the display, it could mean that the board(s) has not yet made the diplomate’s status available to ABMS.
As each board has specific requirements, it is always best practice to check with the individual board.
Technology Updates
ABMS Solutions, LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of ABMS, has expanded its partnership with its current software platform providers to create an enhanced integration solution for board certification data. ABMS Solutions will continue to provide access to the ABMS database through its CertiFACTS® Online website. However, the third-party web crawl access with CertiFACTS will be sunsetting at the end of the current term for those users accessing that platform.
ABMS Solutions clients who want to continue to access board certification data with integration to any of the current software platform partners will need to transition to the ABMS Direct Connect® Select product. The ABMS Solutions team is proactively reaching out to those clients.
Recertification and Reverification Dates
ABMS does not set or change the recertification and/or reverification date. Each member board identifies its own dates, which may differ by specialty.
Most boards offer time-limited certification with end dates. A recertification date identifies the end of the current period for a diplomate with a time-limited certificate. These dates can vary in length by board.
However, 11 boards have eliminated end dates because they maintain continuing certification is an ongoing process, making end dates obsolete. Recognizing that some entities may still need a certification end date to complete primary source verification, the 11 boards provide an annual reverification date, which is the date on or after those boards recommend that MSPs check a diplomate’s certification status.
It is important to note that a diplomate’s certification status will only change once a year, unless a certificate is revoked for disciplinary reasons. Therefore, by using the suggested annual reverification date, MSPs will have accurate information about a diplomate’s current certification status. The End Dates and Reverification Dates table on the ABMS Solutions website offers a summary of the boards’ time-limited certificate end dates, duration time, and reverification dates to assist with the credentialing process.
Database Updates
The information in the ABMS certification database is supplied by the member boards per an established schedule. As certification data are received, the database is refreshed daily after the information received from the boards is thoroughly reviewed and verified by ABMS for completeness and accuracy. This rigorous process to receive and update all data can take up to 30 days, depending on the receipt of the data. Once this process is complete, the information is incorporated into the database and made accessible through ABMS Solutions’ products and ABMS licensee partners.
The information is displayed within the ABMS board certification credentials profile, which is officially recognized as primary source documentation by The Joint Commission, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and the Utilization Review Accreditation Committee, as well as other key accrediting agencies.
ABMS has worked diligently to shorten the time between receiving the data from the boards to having it posted on the ABMS Solutions website. At present, the data that is available from the boards with Dec. 31 end dates are posted in January.
Value of ABMS Board Certification
Substantial evidence demonstrates the positive association between ABMS Member Board certification and patient safety, healthcare costs, disciplinary actions, and clinical outcomes. Research shows that ABMS diplomates who are participating in continuing certification:
Additionally, policymakers are adopting uniform professional standards and definitions for legitimate certification bodies to uphold the integrity of physician credentialing organizations.
For instance, in 2024, the Colorado legislature included a definition of national board certification in its Medical Practice Act for the first time. More notably, the United States Congress adopted standards that recognize certifying bodies for physicians serving the more than 130,000-person workforce of the Defense Health Agency. In both cases, ABMS Member Boards were recognized as meeting the criteria defined by the legislation.
ABMS serves the public and the medical profession by offering a trusted board certification credential — the gold standard for recognizing the competence and professionalism of physicians and medical specialists. It is also a credential that hospitals and health systems can independently and voluntarily rely on when arriving at their operational decisions.