American Board of Medical Specialties Research and Education Foundation Announces Recipients of Inaugural Research Grants

Research grants totaling $550,000 awarded for General Certification (funded by ABMS) and Diagnostic Excellence Through Certification (funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation).

CHICAGO, June 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Research and Education Foundation (REF) has announced the recipients of its inaugural research grants program. Awarded in two categories, the two-year grants represent $550,000 in funding and a significant commitment to research by the ABMS REF.

"The ABMS REF is excited to announce our first-ever grant recipients" stated Martin Pusic, MD, PhD, Director, ABMS REF. "From the pool of initial Letter of Intent proposals 19 were invited to submit full submissions. The selected independent investigators' studies will focus on both effects of board certification on patient care as well as on diagnostic excellence as it intersects with initial and continuing certification. The results of these studies are anticipated to help the ABMS Member Boards further improve the quality of health care through professional standards."

Recipients of the ABMS REF funded General Certification category and their studies are:

• Arch Mainous, PhD, Professor, University of Florida – "The Impact of Continuing Certification on Quality of Patient Care"
  
  
• Brigitte Smith, MD, MHPE, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin – "A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Relative Merits of Different Oral Certifying Examination Formats"
  
  
• Daniel West, MD, Senior Director of Medical Education and Professor (Penn School of Medicine), Children's Hospital of Philadelphia – "A Multi-Site Implementation and Effectiveness Study of a Protocol to Support Equitable Competency-Based Advancement Decisions and Resident-Driven Learning"
  
  
• Fasika Woreta, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Wilmer Eye Institute/Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine - Gender, Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Oral Board Examiners of Surgical Specialties"

The second category, Diagnostic Excellence Through Certification, is principally funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and was established to support ABMS Member Boards and the selected investigators' research into the specific area of improving medical diagnosis. The recipients in this category are:

• Laura Burke, MD, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School - "Association Between Emergency Medicine Board Certification and Diagnostic Error in Emergency Care: A National Analysis"
  
  
• Kiran Malhotra, MD, Clinical Informatics Fellow, New York University Langone Health – "Automated Mapping of Visit Diagnoses to Specialty Board Clinical Domains for Enhanced Assessment, Certification, and Precision Education"
  
  
• Ting Wang, PhD, Senior Psychometrician, American Board of Family Medicine - "Enhancing Diagnostic Accuracy and Calibration via Automated Clone Item Generation and Personalized Feedback in Longitudinal Assessment"

Following formal notice of their submission selection, grant recipients' projects will begin on September 1, 2024, and continue for a two-year project period. Results from these studies are anticipated to be presented at the ABMS Conference 2026. The grant program is anticipated to be hosted annually with the potential for a new cycle of requests for proposals released later this fall.

About ABMS
Established in 1933, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is responsible for the creation of standards overseeing physician certification in the United States. Dedicated to improving the quality of care to the patients, families and communities they serve, the 24 ABMS Member Boards develop educational and professional standards and programs of assessment to certify physicians and medical specialists. More than 985,000 physicians and medical specialists are certified by one or more of the ABMS Member Boards in one or more of 40 specialties and 89 subspecialties. For more information about ABMS, visit abms.org or call (312) 436-2600.

SOURCE American Board of Medical Specialties