Appendix: Pathways to Certification

The American Board of Preventive Medicine has developed an online application for primary Specialty and Subspecialty Certification. The website public view enables Applicants to review the requirements to select the Specialty/Subspecialty and the appropriate application Pathway. Applicants are required to register on the site for access to the physician portal. The physician portal and application is intended to host all future activity for the Applicant. The Applicant may start and save the application to return later.

The Applicant will be directed to attach documentation (upload) per the Specialty/Subspecialty chosen. All applications require documentation specific to the Specialty/Subspecialty and the application Pathway. The documentation requests may be directed by the Applicant to the third-party verifier electronically or via a form download in which the Applicants send the form to the verifier with a request to return the document to ABPM via fax or email. Applicants are encouraged to use the electronic process to enable verifiers to reply electronically. The completed verifications received are attached or uploaded to the online application. All applications will be subject to primary source verification for the following items: Medical licenses and ABMS member board certification. Upon receipt of a completed (submitted) application ABPM staff initiate the verification and documentation process.

Documentation Process

The Applicant will be expected to complete or request documentation to support the application. It is the responsibility of the Applicant to ensure that all required documentation is received by the ABPM. The system may send email reminders to the Applicant to indicate when items are missing. The Applicant may also log into their portal to determine the status of their application. The documents required are based on the application and Pathway submitted. All documentation must be received by July 30th. Applicants completing programs in August, must submit proof of degree and residency or fellowship completion prior to September 30th. Applicants with an “Approved Pending” decision will also have until September 30th to submit requested documentation. Listed below are the documents that may be required to be provided by the Applicant or Third-party documentation.

CV
Contingent upon the type of application and date of completion of qualifying activity, a CV must be uploaded to the file by the Applicant.

Transcript
MPH or Equivalent Degree/Graduate coursework. Documentation of a completed MPH or equivalent degree program is required for Residency Pathway and Complementary Pathway applications for all Specialties. The transcript will be reviewed for appropriate coursework and date of degree (if required). Applicants that have submitted their transcript prior to the conferring of the degree will be asked to provide a letter from their program confirming completion of the MPH and/or required coursework. A transcript may also be required for a Clinical Informatics application if the Applicant is using masters level coursework to complete the Practice Pathway requirements.

Clinical Training
The Applicant applying for a Specialty Certification through the Residency or Complementary Pathway will be required to submit Clinical Training confirmation documentation (training certificate or program director letter) by uploading to the file.

Third-Party Documentation
Most Applicants will be required to request third-party documentation based on the Application type (Specialty/Sub-Specialty) and Pathway. Applicants are encouraged to submit requests through the electronic process to expedite and verify the sender (verifier). Alternatively, Applicants may send the verification document to the verifier via email and/or fax. The verifier may return the documents via fax or email. To ensure compliance with primary source verification, the preferred method of documentation request is the electronic process. Emails are verified and documented through the “Right Signature” function.

Verification Forms
Specific to the type of application completed, Applicants will submit requests through the application process for Verification of Residency, Verification of Fellowship, and Verification of Practice documents to the appropriate contacts either electronically or via a download that is manually sent to the verifier. The forms are completed by the verifier and returned to ABPM electronically or via email/fax. The documents are attached to the application for review.

Coursework Transcripts
Applicants applying for a Specialty Certification through the Residency or Complementary Pathways must request a transcript. Clinical Informatics Applicants requiring credit for Master-level coursework through the Practice Pathway are required to submit a transcript. All transcripts must be official and sent from the institution. The ABPM staff will scan or attach the documents received to the application.

Letter(s) of Reference
Letter(s) of reference may be required for Specialties/Subspecialties contingent upon the type of application and date of completion of the qualifying activity. The letters of reference requests are sent via the application process to the Applicant’s designated choice via electronic process or through a download that is sent to the reference by the Applicant. The letter of reference should be returned directly to ABPM via the electronic process or through the designated fax or email. The letters of reference are attached to the application upon receipt for review.

Verification Process

Applicant information is collected in a batch file and transmitted by the application system to ABMS to obtain the medical school graduation year, license verification, license action if any, and board verification if applicable. ABMS maintains a database of physician records that is updated monthly. The license data is initially obtained from the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and includes the verification of medical school graduation and license action if applicable. All licenses (prior and current licenses are available from the FSMB. Any license action matched is collected by ABMS to report to member boards through a Disciplinary Action Notification System (DANS) report. ABMS will match the records submitted in the batch report to their database and return files to ABPM. Files are matched using the ABMS identifiers or through a minimum of four (4) key data points. New Applicants without a current file at ABMS will be sent by ABMS to FSMB to collect the medical school graduation year, license verification and license action. The ABMS report will list all current license and through the DANS report will provide data on current and former licenses with action. All files are transmitted to ABPM electronically to populate the matching fields in the Applicant file. Any files unable to be matched by ABMS or FSMB are researched manually by ABPM staff. Following are the notifications and actions required.

DANS alerts
All applications with a DANS alert will require an FSMB report to be obtained by staff and attached to the file. Additional documentation in the form of state board public records may also be required. Board reviewers may also request the ABPM staff to request from the additional documentation from the Applicant that may include records that are not available through a public records search.

Verification Discrepancy
ABPM staff reviews will provide an explanation and seek additional verification for record discrepancies for the verified fields of graduation year, licenses, and board certification. Following is the chart of required documentation and verification for each Specialty and Subspecialty.

FAQs
In addition to the requirements listed on the website, FAQs are available for Addiction Medicine and Clinical Informatics. ABPM will add additional FAQs to the website for the Specialty Certification and Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine.

General Requirements
All Applicants for Certification in a Specialty or Subspecialty must meet the general requirements. Following are the list of requirements for each Specialty and Subspecialty.