Chicago, IL, June 13, 2022: The American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) is pleased to announce that at its recently completed meetings, the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) formally approved the ABPM’s request for separate designations for each of the three preventive medicine specialties of Aerospace Medicine, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, and Public Health & General Preventive Medicine. The ACGME Board of Directors provided final approval of the separate designation after a period of public review and comment.

While these new designations recognize the inherent differences in the ABPM’s individual specialties, they will not result in a change in the structure or responsibilities of the ACGME’s Preventive Medicine Review Committee, which shall retain responsibility for the supervision and review of the entire complement of ACGME-accredited Preventive Medicine residency programs.

As a result of this update, the specialties will be listed separately on the ACGME’s website. ABPM will work with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to update its Residency Explorer tool and its Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), and with the American Medical Association (AMA) to update its Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA), so that all of these online services will list Aerospace Medicine, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, and Public Health & General Preventive Medicine separately, thereby greatly increasing awareness of each of ABPM’s specialties among medical school students and physicians searching for career paths in preventive medicine.

“We have been so thankful to have the partnership of ACGME and our specialty societies who worked with us to accomplish this goal,” said ABPM Board Chair, Wendy E. Braund, MD, MPH, MSEd, FACPM. “While the separate designation of the three specialties will not make any significant impact on residency program requirements, it is a big step towards increasing the visibility of preventive medicine specialties, and the attractive career pathways they offer, among students, residents, and practicing physicians.”

Since all three specialties will remain under a common Review Committee, residency programs will not see any major changes to their program requirements.

The ABPM is an ABMS Member Board. Founded in 1948, ABPM works with the ABMS in the development of standards for the ongoing assessment and certification of over 12,000 physicians certified by the ABPM in the specialties of Aerospace Medicine, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, and Public Health & General Preventive Medicine; and in the subspecialties of Addiction Medicine, Clinical Informatics, Medical Toxicology, and Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine.