Leaders with the American Board of Radiology are meeting this week to discuss the possibility of administering some examinations virtually, the nonprofit announced on Monday.
The discussion comes following intense pressure from numerous imaging interest groups, imploring the ABR to offer test-taking alternatives during the pandemic.
“Discussions with stakeholders and the uncertainty of COVID-19 have us considering a few options,” spokesman Rodney Campbell told Radiology Business Monday. “Our board of governors is going to discuss the subject later in the week,” he added.
ABR exams cover diagnostic and interventional radiology along with medical physics and radiation oncology. And each offers different test types with varying schedules, the doc-certification group noted in a June 15 blog post. Three of the four incorporate oral examinations, and the ABR offers two different computer-based assessments.
The board said it’s been meeting with various stakeholder groups, with those discussions intensifying recently since the pandemic forced ABR to push most testing into 2021. It’s also collaborating with parent company the American Board of Medical Specialties and “several” individual member boards in the process, according to the blog. Other specialties under that umbrella org, such as surgery, are offering home-based exams with live-video proctoring in 2020.
“ABR staff have been fully engaged evaluating virtual options for our many exams,” the board said in its message. “The ABR Board of Governors has been involved in many of these discussions and will explore several options in more detail later this week. We greatly appreciate your constructive input and your patience. We will continue working to develop concrete plans as soon as possible,” the message concluded.
Several major imaging groups implored ABR last week to devise substitute means of delivering its tests in 2020, rather than postponing them until next year. Absent such an alternative, practices could sustain a “devastating impact” in recruitment and care delivery, the newly formed Multispecialty Early Radiologic Career Coalition said June 8.
Following the letter’s transmission, Howard Fleishon, MD, chairman of the American College of Radiology’s Board of Chancellors, sent a separate letter to the ABR Friday. In it, he highlighted the college’s “significant concerns” with plans to push most testing into next year.
“We will not duplicate the specific challenges they described but agree that these are very significant and must be addressed and considered in your decision-making,” he wrote June 12.
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.