ABPN Position on Advocacy for Board Certification and Continuing Certification
The ABPN has never advocated for board certification as a requirement for state medical licensure and does not believe that board certification or continuing certification (CC) should be requirements for initial licensure or for maintenance of licensure (MOL). The ABPN strongly recommends to state medical boards, however, that if diplomates do complete the requirements of CC then that accomplishment should suffice for MOL.
While the ABPN recognizes that board certification has long been considered by clinical institutions and the public at large as a valid measure of the training and competence of physicians to provide quality patient care, the ABPN has never advocated that board certification or CC be used as a credentialing requirement by any institutions or programs other than for faculty and program directors in ACGME-accredited or ABPN-approved training programs. The ABPN does believe, however, that the medical staff of clinical institutions should be free to select for themselves what their credentialing criteria will be.
ABPN
