As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on and educational offerings migrate to the web, radiologists are left wondering: Can’t I take my certification exams online, too? At least for now, the answer still remains an emphatic “no.”
The American Board of Radiology reiterated that reality in an April 27 post to its website. ABR shared that it has extended the subspecialty exam window until May 31, while also labeling the remote administration of testing “problematic.”
“We have investigated many options, but the inability to adequately control image quality, the testing environment, and security would significantly threaten the fairness, reproducibility, validity and reliability of the testing instrument across candidates,” ABR wrote, echoing similar comments made in March. “We want to give exams that fairly and accurately assess a candidate’s knowledge and experience.”
Residents in a different specialty have reportedly protested the American Board of Dermatology’s plans to move forward with in-person testing set for July in Florida. However, the ABD—under the same umbrella organization as the Board of Radiology—has stuck to its guns, putting it at odds with other entities that have adapted to the times, Medpage reported.
"Dermatology practices have closed their doors and moved to teledermatology to protect patients, and now they're saying all graduating dermatologists should fly to Tampa and then return to work? As doctors, we're telling everyone to shelter in place ... yet we as a specialty are not making accommodations for residents to take the exam in a safe manner,” an anonymous resident said, according to the publication.
As of April 13, ABR has postponed exams slated for May and July, with the radiation oncology oral exam next on the calendar, scheduled for mid-October in Tucson. “We pledge to remain flexible and responsive to candidate needs, and we appreciate everyone’s patience as we all go through the pandemic’s effects together,” ABR concluded in its April 27 post.
Ben White, MD—a Texas neuroradiologist, blogger and ABR critic—chastised the board on Thursday for its refusal to adapt a remote-testing model during the pandemic.
“Being ‘responsive to candidate needs’ and also rejecting the idea of remote testing are 100% incompatible,” White blogged April 30. “This is absolutely a public health issue, and a head-down, blinders-on approach is unacceptable for a health-related organization purporting to act in the public’s interest.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.