ACP Congress: Diplomate Recognition and ABVLM Update

• ABVLM Diplomate Recognition – Friday, November 4 @ 8:35am-8:40am, Platinum 5-6 (General Session) immediately following Opening Remarks and the Phlebology Year in Review. 
  
  Diplomates will be invited to stand in place and be recognized by the several hundred Congress attendees, as Board President Dr. Zimmet offers remarks about certification in venous and lymphatic medicine.

• ABVLM Update – Sunday, November 6 @ 8:50am-9:00am, Orange County 1-3 (Research, Registry and Accreditation concurrent session). 
  
  Dr. Zimmet will highlight:
• ABVLM’s ongoing Maintenance of Certification (MOC) process which will be replacing the every 10 year recertification exam;
• fellowship development; and
• subspecialty recognition, including some discussion about ABMS recognition.

ABVLM Recertification Moves Toward Ongoing Learning Model

The ABVLM Board of Directors met in early August 2016 and discussed the 10-year Recertification Process. As many may know, there has been a great deal of discussion within several ABMS Boards regarding the future of their own decennial high-stake exams.

Our Board reviewed recent activity, especially with respect to the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) and the American Board of Radiology (ABR), who are both moving away from a 4-hour, every-10-year exam in lieu of an ongoing educational process for their diplomates to maintain their board certification.

The ABA has developed what they call the MOCA Minute™ process, whereby ABA diplomates review multiple choice questions on a periodic basis, get immediate feedback on their answers, and are provided with both a rationale for the answer and links to additional resources should the diplomate want to learn more on that topic.

The ABVLM now is modeling our own 10-year recertification program after the ABA’s program. Therefore, in lieu of a 4-hour exam at a test center, we intend to have no recertification exam for diplomates who are current on their Maintenance of Certification (MOC), but rather we will have MOC longitudinal assessment questions delivered to diplomates for them to answer.

This process is in active development, and we intend to have a small pilot program running in 2017 to beta test the software and question delivery mechanisms.  The ABVLM program will be similar to but not identical to the program the ABA has rolled out.  We anticipate that we will start the program in mid-2018 for all diplomates.

More details will be forthcoming, but we wanted all diplomates to know that the ABVLM is moving away from the 10-year certification exam, which we believe is not the ideal method to foster learning and facilitate the retention of knowledge. We think diplomates will find the ongoing learning program as outlined better integrates assessment and education, and should prove more useful to day-to-day practice and improving patient care.

ABVLM: Vision and Value

Do we need venous specialists? This question and more is discussed in an August 2016 article written by Board President Dr. Steve Zimmet and published in VEIN magazine.

The article reviews current education in venous and lymphatic medicine (VLM), and presents the ABVLM’s 3-step collaborative process to developing VLM educational standards and training. It goes on to discuss both the vision of the ABVLM and its value to the future of the field of venous and lymphatic medicine as well as a historical perspective regarding ABMS recognition of subspecialties.

You can link to the article in VEIN magazine here, or link to the same article in a PDF format on the ABVLM website here.

Welcome and Congratulations to Our 2016 New Diplomates

Congratulations to the 37 candidates who passed the 2016 exam (88% pass rate). There are now 755 physicians who have passed the ABVLM Certification Exam since its inception in 2008.

Proudly introducing the Class of 2016

Charlene Adkins, MD Manu Bala Aggarwal, MD Jiyong Ahn, MD Nassim Akle, MD Dr. Mir B. Ali, MD Michael Louis Cahn, MD Ralph L. Carullo, MD Lisa E Esler-Brauer, MD Steven G. Folstad, MD James Douglas Fonger, MD Courtney S. Green, MD Ryan B. Greene, MD Todd Richard Hansen MD

Wesley R. Harden III, MD Evan W. Harris, MD Marlow B. Hernandez, DO Susan A. Kanehann, MD Sanjiv Lakhanpal, MD Mark Langsfeld, MD James Lee Lonquist, MD Anne Luhan, MD Robert E. Mazzei, DO Michael A. Nelson, MD Khanh Nguyen, DO Timothy John Norton, MD

Barry F. Oswalt, MD David Lawrence Pinsinski, MD Dominic Anthony Plucinski, MD Ramachandran Ravichandran, MD Federico M. Richter MD Stephen Sanofsky, MD Ziad Sara, MD Haimesh Shah, MD Sanjay Surath Srivatsa, MD John T. Steele, MD Sonny J. H. Wong, MD Ruel N. Wright, MD