American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Diplomate Customization Choices on the Longitudinal Assessment for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Abstract

The American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation began administering the longitudinal assessment for physical medicine and rehabilitation for continuing certification in 2020. The longitudinal assessment for physical medicine and rehabilitation digitally delivers quarterly short assessments of content and repeats missed items to facilitate learning as well as serve as a summative certification assessment. With a goal of offering content relevant to an individual’s practice and learning needs, diplomates choose how to customize the domains or topic areas of their question content on an annual basis. This report describes the first year of experience with customization of longitudinal assessment for physical medicine and rehabilitation. The American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation diplomate customization data are grouped and compared in a variety of ways to ascertain whether there are differences in customization choices. While customization choices were similar across several domains, significant differences were seen when comparing groups with specific areas of practice or subspecialty certification. Smaller differences were also seen when comparing question domain allocation choice between sexes, age groups, and practice setting. The results from this first full year of experience confirm an alignment of this innovative assessment approach to individual physician practice, a significant step in improving the relevance of continuing certification overall for participating physicians.

Current practice focus trends in physical medicine and rehabilitation

“…In 2020, the ABPMR implemented a new longitudinal assessment (LA-PM&R) to replace the previous 10-year knowledge assessment (Maintenance of Certification Examination) component of the continuing certification program for board-certified physiatrists. 5,6 This assessment requires physicians to engage quarterly through an online platform to respond to questions and read related educational material. The program also requires an annual registration that affords an opportunity for participants to provide and regularly update information about their demographic information, geographic locations, practice settings, and practice focus as part of the registration process.…”

“…In 2020, the ABPMR implemented a new longitudinal assessment (LA‐PM&R) to replace the previous 10‐year knowledge assessment (Maintenance of Certification Examination) component of the continuing certification program for board‐certified physiatrists 5,6 . This assessment requires physicians to engage quarterly through an online platform to respond to questions and read related educational material.…”