Frequently Asked Questions

About ABMS and ABMS Solutions™

About ABMS Solutions

ABMS Solutions, LLC oversees the licensing of the CertiFACTS Online product set for Primary Source Verification (PSV) of a physician’s board certification status. Developed in 1999, CertiFACTS is the original and most widely accepted professional online resource for checking board certification information in the ABMS database…quickly, conveniently, and securely. Only CertiFACTS products connect professionals with board certification information that is updated daily with data provided by the 24 certifying ABMS Member Boards.

Board certification data from the ABMS database meet all PSV requirements as set by the Joint Commission (TJC), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and the Utilization Review Accreditation Committee (URAC) for the secure and timely reporting of credentialing information.

ABMS Solutions, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS).

About American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)

Since its inception in 1933, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) continues to be the leading not-for-profit organization overseeing physician certification in the United States. Its focus is on improving the quality of health care to patients, families, and communities by supporting the continuous professional development of physician specialists.

ABMS establishes the professional standards its 24 Member Boards use to develop and implement evaluation and assessment programs for the certification of physician specialists. Nearly one million physicians are certified in one or more of the specialties and subspecialties offered by the ABMS Member Boards.

For more information about ABMS visit www.abms.org.

ABMS Solutions products

The ABMS Solutions™ product set for professional Primary Source Verification (PSV) of physician board certification includes:

  • CertiFACTS® Online is the original and most widely accepted professional online resource for checking board certification information in the ABMS database. CertiFACTS is available in both one- and two-year annual subscriptions that allow unlimited query capability.
  • ABMS® Certification Profile Service provides as-needed access to the ABMS database with query package options that fit your needs.
  • ABMS Direct Connect® Select helps credentialing professionals connect directly to the ABMS database through credentialing software platforms such as Cactus, MDStaff, CredentialSmart or Vistar.

Board certification information is available for nearly one million physicians in the ABMS database. Information in the database is updated daily. Query results provide board certification effective and expiration dates, complete physician certification history, and ABMS Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program information.

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Other Boards and Certification

Boards Outside of ABMS

There are a number of non-ABMS and self-designated medical boards in the United States. Some have applied for ABMS membership and some have not. Applicant boards are reviewed and accepted jointly by ABMS and the American Medical Association Council on Medical Education after initial review by Liaison Committee for Specialty Boards.

ABMS monitors and takes action against any board claiming to be an ABMS Member Board and any individual wrongfully claiming to be certified by an ABMS board.

Please note that neither ABMS nor any of its boards is affiliated with BoardCertified LLC. Subscription to or payment of any fees to Boardcertified.com or BoardCertified LLC will not affect any diplomate’s certification status with their specialty board or listing in the ABMS database.

Unless the board is recognized by ABMS, we do not have information about its particular requirements for certification and cannot provide certification verification.

Certification of Doctors of Osteopathy (DO)

If a physician’s post-graduate training is osteopathic, then he or she is only eligible to take the exams administered by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). To be eligible to take a certification exam given by an ABMS Member Board, a DO must complete residency training program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Osteopathic physicians may choose to be certified by an ABMS specialty board AND an approved AOA specialty board. For more information about osteopathic medicine visit the American Osteopathic Association website.

Certification of podiatrists, dentists, oral surgeons or chiropractors

Practitioners of these professions are not certified through any of the ABMS Member Boards. Each of these professions has their own certifying bodies. These individuals can be located through their appropriate professional organization.

Certification of cosmetic surgeons and ABMS

ABMS Member Boards do not certify cosmetic surgeons, though several boards evaluate and certify specialists as qualified to perform some types of plastic or aesthetic (cosmetic) surgery. Contact the ABMS Member Board directly to determine if its physicians are qualified in a specific procedure.

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About ABMS Member Boards

Member Boards of ABMS

The 24 ABMS Member Boards include: American Board of Allergy and Immunology, American Board of Anesthesiology, American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery, American Board of Dermatology, American Board of Emergency Medicine, American Board of Family Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics, American Board of Neurological Surgery, American Board of Nuclear Medicine, American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Board of Ophthalmology, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, American Board of Pathology, American Board of Pediatrics, American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, American Board of Plastic Surgery, American Board of Preventive Medicine, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, American Board of Radiology, American Board of Surgery, American Board of Thoracic Surgery and American Board of Urology.

Approved specialty and subspecialty certificates

Physicians can become certified through ABMS’ 24 Member Boards. Click here for a list of the specialty and subspecialty certificates offered by the boards.

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About Board Certification

Importance of board certification and maintaining certification

Certification by an ABMS Member Board helps demonstrate to the public that a physician meets nationally recognized standards for education, knowledge, experience, and skills and maintains their certification through continuous learning and practice improvement in order to provide high-quality care in a specific medical specialty or subspecialty.

Description of a board certified diplomate

A physician who has met all the requirements for certification and has passed the certifying examination given by an ABMS Member Board is considered a diplomate of that board. If the individual is no longer certified in the future, then that individual is no longer referred to as a diplomate.

Difference between board certification and medical licensure

All physicians in the United States must be licensed in order to practice medicine, but they are not required to be certified. A license is issued by the physician’s state medical board. Certification requirements go above and beyond licensing requirements. It is not overseen by state regulatory boards. Earning and maintaining certification through an ABMS Member Board, represents a physician’s commitment to continually expand and refresh his or her knowledge and expertise in a particular medical specialty or subspecialty.

Process for board certification

The ABMS Member Boards’ certification programs are rooted in the professional and educational standards set by ABMS and the Member Boards for medical specialty practice and certification. The program involves two basic phases of assessment within a continuous process: initial certification and maintaining certification. Initial certification occurs soon after completion of residency training. Each ABMS board has identified what candidates must accomplish to demonstrate competence in order to be eligible for initial certification. Generally, this involves:

  • Finishing four years of premedical education in a college or university;
  • Earning a medical degree (MD, DO or other credential approved by an ABMS Member Board) from a qualified medical school;
  • Completing three to seven years of full-time experience in a residency training program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education;
  • Providing letters of attestation from the program director and/or faculty; and
  • Obtaining an unrestricted medical license to practice medicine in the United States or Canada.

Candidates for certification must then pass an exam created and administered by the specialty board. These exams are developed by physicians and others who are subject experts in the specific area of medicine. Exams are developed against learning requirements, extensively tested, and refined over time. This is done to assure that the exam is a thorough, relevant, and fair assessment of a physician’s medical knowledge, clinical judgment, and diagnostic skills. Candidates who have passed the exam and completed all other requirements are considered certified as a specialist and a diplomate of their board.

A similar eligibility process is followed for certified specialists seeking subspecialty certification. Candidates must be certified by their specialty board, then complete additional training during or after residency and successfully complete assessments of knowledge and clinical judgment in their subspecialty discipline before being granted certification in a subspecialty.

Additional requirements may need to be met by graduates of international medical programs before being allowed to sit for a certification examination. Check with the particular specialty board for more information.

Description of Board Eligibility

ABMS defines board eligibility as the period of time between when a physician completes an accredited residency program and when initial certification in a specialty is achieved. On January 1, 2012, ABMS established its Board Eligibility Policy which places limits on this time period. The policy recognizes physicians’ need to use the term board eligible as a way to signal their preparations for specialty certification. At the same time, it closes off the potential for abuse through use of the term indefinitely.

ABMS Member Boards with an existing board eligibility policy aligned their board eligible periods with the principles of the established ABMS policy. Member Boards that did not have an existing policy in place established a board eligible period of 3 to 7 years for physicians to achieve initial certification following successful completion of accredited training plus time (if any) in practice. Additionally, the boards established transition dates for physician candidates who had completed training but not yet achieved initial certification in a specialty as of the ABMS policy’s effective date. Those boards chose a date between January 1, 2015 and January 1, 2019 for candidates to achieve initial certification.

When a physician does not achieve initial certification within the board eligibility period, that physician must cease from representing him/herself as being board eligible. The physician must again complete all requirements of the specialty board before admissibility to the certification examination.

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About Maintaining Certification

Maintaining certification through the ABMS Program for Maintenance of Certification (MOC)

ABMS Member Boards support physicians’ transition from training to practice through AMOC. The MOC program provides physicians a mechanism to maintain their certification through their engagement in continuous, specialty-specific learning, assessment, and improvement activities. The activities in MOC are based on the competency framework defined by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education and ABMS. They are aligned with the principles of the ABMS standards and address the changing performance expectations and the various settings, patients, and challenges physicians encounter in practice. The competencies include:

  • Professionalism – Carrying out responsibilities safely and ethically.
  • Patient care and procedural skills – Providing compassionate, appropriate, and effective patient care.
  • Medical knowledge – Demonstrating medical knowledge and its application to patient care.
  • Practice-based learning and improvement – Continuously improving patient care through self-evaluation and lifelong learning.
  • Interpersonal and communication skills – Facilitating effective information exchange and collaboration with patients, their families, and other health professionals.
  • Systems-based practice – Ability to call on other system resources to provide optimal health care.

Subject experts at each specialty board and their related societies actively seek or develop tools and make available learning opportunities to support the self-assessment and performance improvement requirements of MOC. The activities reflect the evidence-based guidelines, national clinical and quality standards, and specialty best practices agreed upon by the Member Boards. They can include clinical databases and registries, peer evaluations, and practice audits that gauge the physician, system, and patient relationship.

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Verifying Physician Certification

ABMS message to credentialers regarding ABIM MOC announcement

In February 2015, ABIM introduced changes to its Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program and its certification status reporting processes which could affect your credentialing procedures. These changes are an extension of ABIM’s Board of Directors’ decision in January 2014, to no longer issue certificates with end dates because of the continuous activities it now requires for physicians to maintain their certification.

Recognizing that some entities may still require current certification status to complete Primary Source Verification, ABIM encourages all credentialers and medical staff professionals to utilize its new annual re-verification date of April 1 to obtain the most accurate information about an ABIM diplomate’s current certification status. For those physicians certified prior to January 2014, the ABMS Certification Profile will continue to display their certification date. The profile will be updated to an MOC certificate when the physician’s current certificate expires.

ABIM created a Credentialer’s page on its website at abim.org/credentialers. You also may contact ABMS Solutions at (800) 733-2267 with any questions.

Verifying a physician’s certification (for professional use)

ABMS Solutions™ oversees the licensing of online product solutions for Primary Source Verification (PSV) of a physician’s certification. These resources allow hospitals and health systems as well as attorneys, insurance groups, and other professionals to check physicians’ records quickly, conveniently, and securely. The ABMS Solutions product offering includes annual subscription services, flexible query packages, and linkages direct to specific credentialing software platforms.

Depending on the product chosen, data can include certification effective and expiration dates, historical information of certifications, as well as meeting requirements for the ABMS Program for Maintenance of Certification (MOC).

Certification data offered by ABMS Solutions complies with all PSV requirements as set by the Joint Commission (TJC), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and the Utilization Review Accreditation Committee (URAC). ABMS Solutions meets these rigorous requirements through the secure and timely reporting of credentialing information.

Primary source information needed (PSV)

ABMS Solutions™ oversees the licensing of online product solutions for Primary Source Verification (PSV) of a physician’s certification. These resources are for professional use to check physicians’ records quickly, conveniently, and securely.

Board certification data from the ABMS database, which includes dates, meet all PSV requirements as set by the Joint Commission (TJC), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and the Utilization Review Accreditation Committee (URAC) for the secure and timely reporting of credentialing information. This is the only online resource that is updated daily with physician certification information from the 24 ABMS certifying Member Boards.

ABMS Solutions product set includes:

  • CertiFACTS Online® is the original and most widely accepted professional online resource for checking board certification information in the ABMS database.
  • ABMS Certification Profile Service® provides as-needed access to the ABMS database with query package options that do not expire.
  • ABMS Direct Connect® Select helps credentialing professionals connect directly to the ABMS database through credentialing software platforms such as Cactus, MDStaff, CredentialSmart or Vistar.

Checking that a physician is participating in MOC

The ABMS Board Certification Credentials Profile includes information about a physician’s board certification and continuing certification (MOC) participation status. The display includes the status of all a physician’s specialty (and subspecialty, if any) certificates from an ABMS Member Board.

The display resulting from a search includes the status of all the physician’s individual specialty (and subspecialty, if any) certificates. For each specialty and subspecialty certificate listed, either a “Yes”, “No” or “Not Required” response is given as to whether that physician is participating in the MOC program of his or her specialty board(s). A display of “No” could indicate that the physician has chosen not to fulfill MOC requirements for that certificate. A display of “Not Required” means that certification was achieved in that specialty before the certifying board established its MOC program, and therefore MOC program participation is not required. If MOC status information is missing from the display, it could mean that the physician’s certifying board(s) has not yet made available his or her MOC status to ABMS. As each board has specific requirements, it is always best practice to check with the individual ABMS board.

Verifying the certification of a physician with Canadian specialties certification

In this instance, contact the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. This group can respond to specific inquiries to confirm that a doctor is certified as a specialist and the year of certification.

Frequency of database updates

The information in the ABMS certification database is supplied by the Member Boards according to their established schedule. The database is refreshed daily, but occurs only after the information received from the Member Boards is thoroughly reviewed and verified by ABMS for completeness and accuracy. 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, NCQA, URAC and other key accrediting agencies.

  • In the case of newly certified physicians, the certifying Member Board submits information within two weeks of when the physician is formally notified or the physician’s certification status is publicly displayed.
  • Information about a physician’s MOC status is provided by the certifying Member Board according to their established MOC cycle.
  • Physicians also may make a request of their certifying Member Board to update personal information in their record, such as a name change or home or business address. The Member Board provides this information to ABMS.

Permitted use of certification data

Please refer to your signed legal agreement for clarification on sharing the printed ABMS certification data with others, or contact ABMS Solutions at (800) 733-2267.

Placing board certification on organization website

A physician’s certification status can be referenced, but the date of certification may not be revealed on a website.

Adding ABMS board certification information into credentialing software

ABMS certification information may be added to a credentialing software program as long as doing so abides by the confidentiality terms stated in the legal agreement that governs the use of ABMS data. Dates may be entered into a credentialing program for internal use as long as the information will not be accessible to anyone not covered in the agreement.

How to find out if a physician has practiced in another state

Please contact the state medical board or the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) DocInfo service. This service provides professional information on physicians and physician assistants licensed in the United States including information on disciplinary sanctions, education, medical specialty, licensure history, and locations. Contact FSMB at (817) 868-4000.

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Online Verification Technical Support

Online search did not return any results

There could be many reasons why a physician’s name does not appear following a search. It could mean that:

  • The physician may not be certified by an ABMS Member Board;
  • The physician may not have an active certification from an ABMS Member Board; or
  • The profile may not be available because the physician requested that their information be kept private.

To possibly remedy this situation, first check the spelling of the physician’s name and the location criteria. Revise the search criteria or completely change it to receive different results. Please check again at a later time in the event the information has not yet been updated.

Newly certified physicians may experience a delay in the posting of their information. Their certifying boards may have not yet transferred data on newly certified physicians. Depending on the board, it can take up to 60 days for us to receive the update. In the meantime, call the particular ABMS Member Board for assistance.

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Physician Disciplinary Action

How to find out if a physician has any disciplinary actions against him or her

This information can be found by accessing the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) DocInfo service. It provides professional information on physicians and physician assistants licensed in the United States including information on disciplinary sanctions, education, medical specialty, licensure history, and locations.

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For Researchers and Media

Statistical projections for specialties and subspecialties

The Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME) provides an ongoing assessment of physician workforce trends, training issues, and financing policies, and recommends appropriate federal and private sector efforts on these issues. COGME advises and makes recommendations to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce.

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For Physicians and Medical Specialists

Requirements for board certification

Each ABMS Member Board has different requirements and it is best to contact the particular board directly. Generally speaking, candidates for initial Board Certification must:

  • Finish four years of premedical education in a college or university;
  • Earn a medical degree (MD, DO or other credential approved by an ABMS Member Board) from a qualified medical school;
  • Complete three to seven years of full-time experience in a residency training program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education;
  • Provide letters of attestation from the program director and/or faculty; and
  • Obtain an unrestricted medical license to practice medicine in the United States or Canada.

Candidates for initial certification must then pass an exam created and administered by their specialty’s board. A similar eligibility process is followed for certified specialists seeking subspecialty certification. Candidates must be certified by their specialty board, then complete additional training during or after residency and successfully complete assessments of knowledge and clinical judgment in their subspecialty discipline before being granted certification in a subspecialty.

Exam dates

Each ABMS Member Board has different requirements and it is best to contact the particular board directly.

Taking certification exam during residency

Each ABMS Member Board has different requirements. Most doctors begin the certification process at some point during their residency training. Check with the specific ABMS Member Board for requirement details.

Obtaining a copy of a certificate or replacing a lost certificate

To receive a copy or replacement, contact the Member Board that issued the original certificate.

How physicians can change information in their personal profile

If you are a physician and have changes to make to your profile, please contact your Member Board. Please ask that the information you provide be given to ABMS to update its database.

When the ABMS database is updated

The information in the ABMS certification database is supplied by the Member Boards according to their established schedule. The database is refreshed daily, but occurs only after the information received from the Member Boards is thoroughly reviewed and verified by ABMS for completeness and accuracy. 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, NCQA, URAC and other key accrediting agencies.

  • In the case of newly certified physicians, the certifying Member Board submits information within two weeks of when the physician is formally notified or the physician’s certification status is publicly displayed.
  • Information about a physician’s MOC status is provided by the certifying Member Board according to their established MOC cycle.
  • Physicians also may make a request of their certifying Member Board to update personal information in their record, such as a name change or home or business address. The Member Board provides this information to ABMS.

Applying current certification from another country to ABMS member board certification

Each ABMS Member Board has different requirements and it is best to contact the particular board directly.

Requirements for certification for foreign-trained students

To find out the requirements, contact the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates at (215) 386-5900.

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