Find Your Specialty 813-433-2277

Having a Choice for Physician Board Recertification Benefits Patients, Physicians and the Health Care System

Opponents of the annual maintenance of certification (MOC) system espoused by other multi-specialty board certification bodies can look for an effective option in the recertification process employed by the member boards of the American Board of Physician Specialties® (ABPS). When physicians are given a choice in how they maintain their board certification, rather than being compelled to slot into one uncompromising system, the benefits extend to patients and the healthcare system as a whole.

Whereas the MOC system has received pushback from the American Medical Association and thousands of physicians nationwide, the ABPS system of recertification is a proven method for ensuring that board certified physicians are doing what they should to maintain the level of knowledge and experience required to provide the finest medical care available in their individual specialties. It is important to note that physicians with current certification from the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) are eligible to apply for recertification with the appropriate ABPS member board. In addition to the rigorous professional eligibility standards for ABPS certification and recertification, all ABPS member boards require that Diplomates complete a medical ethics course that serves to reinforce the pledge that every ABPS Diplomate takes to adhere to the organization’s code of ethics.

ABPS Code of Ethics: A Foundation for Trust

The ABPS code of ethics requires that physicians promise:

  • To maintain the highest standard of personal conduct
  • To promote and encourage the highest level of medical ethics
  • To maintain loyalty to the goals and objectives of the ABPS
  • To recognize and fulfill the personal responsibility and the responsibility of those who practice the profession to uphold the laws and regulations relating to the practice of medicine
  • To strive for excellence in all aspects of medical practice
  • To use only legal and ethical means in the provision of care for patients
  • To provide patient care impartially; provide no special privilege to any individual patient based on the patient’s race, color, creed, sex, national origin, or handicap
  • To accept no personal compensation from any party that would influence or require special consideration in the provision of care to any patient

 

Flexibility That Respects Physicians’ Time and Expertise

The ABPS recertification process is designed to respect physicians’ busy schedules and professional autonomy. By allowing greater flexibility in how physicians maintain their credentials—without compromising on quality—the ABPS helps reduce administrative burdens and burnout. This approach encourages lifelong learning and ensures that recertification remains a meaningful and rewarding process, rather than a rigid obligation dictated by outdated or inflexible systems.

Eligibility Requirements for Recertification

To apply for ABPS recertification, physicians must:

  • Hold current or recently expired board certification from ABPS, ABMS, or AOA
  • Maintain a full and unrestricted license to practice medicine in the U.S., its territories, or Canada
  • Complete a minimum of 50 hours of Continuing Medical Education (CME) annually
  • Submit a current curriculum vitae reflecting professional activity
  • Pass a written recertification exam developed to current psychometric and clinical standards

 

Why Choice in Physician Board Certification Matters

This commitment to quality health care ahead of the business of medicine is a foundational tenet of the ABPS. The ABPS believes that having a choice in physician board certification and recertification is good for healthcare, good for physicians and, by extension, good for patients because by providing options, it can help reduce the costs of recertification. 

Choice in physician board certification matters because physicians do not all practice in the same environment, follow the same career path, or face the same professional demands. A physician working in a rural emergency department, a hospitalist serving a busy inpatient unit, a family physician providing broad-scope care, and a specialist practicing in an urban medical center may all share a commitment to excellence, but the way they maintain and demonstrate their knowledge may not fit neatly into one rigid recertification model.

The ABPS believes that standards should be high, but the path to meeting those standards should also be fair, practical, and clinically meaningful. Recertification should confirm that physicians remain knowledgeable, ethical, and competent in their specialties. It should not become an overly burdensome administrative process that takes time away from patient care without adding meaningful value to the physician’s practice or the patient’s experience.

When physicians have a choice, they can select a recertification pathway that respects their time while still holding them accountable to rigorous professional expectations. This helps support a healthier certification environment—one where physicians are encouraged to maintain excellence without feeling trapped by a single system that may not reflect the realities of their work.

Choice also benefits hospitals, health systems, and patients. Healthcare organizations need qualified physicians who can meet credentialing standards, maintain privileges, and continue serving their communities without unnecessary disruption. Patients need physicians who are current in their knowledge, grounded in ethical practice, and committed to continuous improvement. By offering a credible recertification option, ABPS helps support both priorities.

A History of Supporting Physician Excellence

The ABPS has a long history of supporting qualified physicians through meaningful board certification. Founded in 1952, ABPS was created to provide a rigorous and respected certification pathway for physicians whose training, experience, and expertise deserved formal recognition. Since certifying its first physician in 1960, ABPS has continued to grow while maintaining a clear focus on high standards, ethical practice, and public trust.

Today, ABPS is one of the nationally recognized multi-specialty physician certifying organizations in the United States. Through its Member Boards, ABPS certifies physicians in a range of specialties and subspecialties, helping Diplomates demonstrate their expertise to patients, peers, hospitals, credentialing committees, and healthcare organizations.

Throughout its history, ABPS has remained committed to a central principle: certification should serve the public by recognizing physicians who meet clear, demanding, and clinically relevant standards. That commitment continues to guide how ABPS approaches both initial certification and recertification.

Our Mission: High Standards, Ethical Practice, and Patient Care

The mission of ABPS is rooted in the belief that physician board certification should strengthen the practice of medicine and promote the highest standards of patient care. We are dedicated to providing certification and recertification pathways that recognize physician expertise, support professional accountability, and reinforce the ethical responsibilities that come with medical practice.

Our work is not simply about issuing credentials. It is about helping physicians demonstrate that they have met meaningful standards in their specialties and remain committed to the knowledge, skill, and judgment their patients deserve. That is why ABPS certification and recertification include rigorous eligibility requirements, psychometrically sound examinations, continuing medical education expectations, and a clear commitment to our Code of Ethics.

We also believe certification should reflect the needs of modern healthcare. Medicine continues to evolve, and physicians serve in many different practice settings. ABPS supports certification pathways that recognize qualified physicians while maintaining the standards patients, hospitals, and the public expect from a trusted certifying organization.

The Benefits of Recertification With ABPS

Recertification with ABPS gives physicians a meaningful way to maintain their professional credentials while demonstrating their continued commitment to excellence. For Diplomates, recertification is an opportunity to reaffirm specialty knowledge, document ongoing education, and maintain alignment with the ethical standards that define the profession.

For physicians who have grown frustrated with annual MOC requirements, the ABPS recertification model offers an effective alternative. Rather than requiring physicians to navigate a rigid yearly system, ABPS emphasizes a structured recertification process that includes continuing medical education, professional standing, ethics, and examination. This approach helps ensure that recertification remains substantive without becoming unnecessarily intrusive.

Recertification also supports professional mobility. A current board certification can be important for hospital privileges, employment opportunities, payer participation, leadership roles, and patient confidence. By maintaining certification through ABPS, physicians can continue to present themselves as board certified specialists who meet recognized standards for knowledge and professionalism.

Patients benefit as well. When physicians maintain board certification, patients have added confidence that their doctors remain engaged in lifelong learning and committed to current standards of care. In a healthcare environment where trust is essential, recertification helps reinforce the relationship between physician accountability and patient confidence.

A Practical Alternative That Keeps Patients First

At ABPS, we believe recertification should serve a clear purpose: protecting patients by confirming that physicians remain qualified, ethical, and knowledgeable in their specialties. We also believe that purpose can be achieved without unnecessary complexity or excessive administrative burden.

Our recertification process reflects respect for physicians and responsibility to the public. It recognizes that doctors are already balancing patient care, continuing education, documentation, staffing pressures, and evolving clinical demands. By offering a rigorous but practical pathway, ABPS helps physicians maintain board certification in a way that supports their careers and keeps the focus where it belongs—on patients.

Physician choice in recertification is not about lowering standards. It is about ensuring that standards remain meaningful, fair, and connected to real medical practice. Through ABPS, qualified physicians have an option that values clinical knowledge, ethical conduct, professional experience, and lifelong learning. That choice strengthens physicians, supports healthcare organizations, and benefits the patients who depend on them.

To learn more about recertification through the ABPS, contact us today and explore a pathway designed to support physicians while upholding the high standards patients deserve.

Save the Date
House of Delegates & Annual Scientific Meeting
Innovation & Overcoming Challenges
June 10-15, 2022
Plan Your Visit. Meeting Information
Patient Care Is Our Priority

Medical organizations throughout North America understand that our rigorous certification standards prove that ABPS Diplomates are capable of delivering the best patient care possible.

With declining access for maternity care amid rising maternal mortality, ABPS and their Board Certification in Family Medicine Obstetrics has been essential for me and many of my colleagues in getting privileges and thereby creating local access for mothers and their children.

Ashish Anand, MD, FAASOS
John B. Waits, MD
Family Medicine Obstetrics
Board certification through the American Board of Physician Specialties has served to substantiate my interest and additional training in several fields of medicine including Internal Medicine, Disaster Medicine, and Administrative Medicine. As a result, I have been able to serve my community in clinical, disaster response, and administrative medicine roles. Through the ABPS, I have become recognized as a leader in my various fields of interest.

Spencer Price MD, MPH, MBA
Administrative Medicine
In this era, when continuous updated medical knowledge means so much to you, when quality of emergency care matters most to you ,when you need to excel in your medical career to continue providing exceptional service to your critically ill patients, please consider board certification with the Boad of Certification in Emergency Medicine (BCEM). Where your knowledge & expertise translates to credentialing & certification with wider approval & recognition every day at many fronts. We Welcome you to join our team for a brighter future of our emergency healthcare where dedication to profession relies not solely on clinical practice but also on sound academic certification.

Ashish Anand, MD, FAASOS
Ashraf A. Gerges, MD, FAAEP
Emergency Medicine
Board certification in Orthopedic Surgery through the American Board of Physician Specialties validated my training and surgical experience through a process that was both rigorous and respectful of real-world practice. ABPS recognizes clinical competence, not just credentials, and that sets it apart.

Ashish Anand, MD, FAASOS
Ashish Anand, MD, FAASOS
Orthopedic Surgery
The American Board of Physician Specialties is a forward- thinking organization that focuses on where Medicine is going, not just where it has been. Traditional Certification Boards like Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Dermatology are represented as are Integrative Medicine, Disaster Medicine, and Family Medicine-Obstetrics. Physicians appreciate the ability to showcase their skills and knowledge through Board Certification, and this organization allows excellent physicians the ability to bring their skills to patients. The dedication and commitment of this organization and its volunteers will ensure ongoing distinction and commitment for decades to come.

Jeffrey B. Stricker, DO, MBA, FAASD
Jeffrey B. Stricker, DO, MBA, FAASD
Dermatology
Serving as a member on the American board of Integrative Medicine (ABOIM) for many years and now serving as a Member at Large of the American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS) has been an enriching and rewarding experience. The board’s commitment to excellence, integrity, and positive impact is truly inspiring. I am grateful to collaborate with such a dedicated and visionary group, and I am proud of the meaningful progress we continue to achieve together.

Arti Prasad, MD, FACP
Arti Prasad, MD, FACP
Integrative Medicine
There are many ways board certification advances a physician career. ABPS Board examination verifies your accuracy, precision, and reflects your mastery of your residency training verifying your expertise. ABPS Board certification demonstrates your level of expertise beyond your practice experience, primary education degrees, and training which are necessary for insurance reimbursement and practice privilege requirements. Attaining your ABPS Board Certification will clarify your purpose, secure your practice growth, and expand into leadership positions. Board certification can serve as an indication of a physician’s commitment to medicine, beyond the minimal standards and competency of training, their measurement to quality of care, and attaining an award for excellence.

Chris Kunis MD
Internal Medicine
When the American Board of Physician Specialties offered to host the American Board of Integrative Medicine, ABPS became a landmark organization working to move medicine into the twenty first century. Certifying physicians who have completed rigorous academic training in Integrative Medicine ensures that the field of Integrative Medicine will continue to develop academically, clinically, and professionally. The leadership of ABPS continues to impress me - they are diligent in constantly innovating to provide certifications for physicians who want to advance their careers and their areas of expertise. I am honored to be a part of this organization.

Ann Marie Chiasson, MD
Integrative Medicine
On October 18, 2007, President George W. Bush released Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21 (HSPD-21), calling on our nation, among other initiatives, to “collectively support and facilitate the establishment of a discipline of disaster health”. It is a great testament to the wisdom and foresight of the American Board of Physician Specialties that it immediately set to work and created, within the short span of only one year, an educational blueprint and set of certification examinations, both written and oral, for a new subspecialty of disaster medicine—and it is why I chose to be part this vital initiative and this wonderful organization. This is but one of the many innovative programs initiated by the American Board of Physician Specialties over the years, and why I am proud to support its work on behalf of our nation’s public health.

Art Cooper, MD
Disaster Medicine
Far too often, medicine is led by less than 5% of non-practicing physicians taking away and replacing the voice of the 95% of physicians practicing and placing patient safety and care first on the front lines every day. The American Board of Physician Specialties has raised the standards in physician board certification not only in the quality of their boards of certification, but in hearing and allowing for the voice of those active physicians caring directly for patients. Having been a part of the ABPS over the last 28 years has allowed me to grow as a woman leader in a field often wrought with challenges. It helped me and others raise the bar of the standards of care in my specialty, Emergency Medicine, through their Board Certification in Emergency Medicine (BCEM). ABPS also helped raise the standards of care for 21st century medicine through their certifications in other specialties, particularly in Integrative Medicine & Disaster Medicine. Having physician voices heard matters to medicine and is essential in the betterment of patient safety and care.

Sarah E. Gilbert, MD, FAAEP
Sarah E. Gilbert, MD, FAAEP
Emergency Medicine
Meet Our Staff Read All Reviews
Boards
Careers
Login
Contact