For the subspecialty of Pain Medicine (PM), the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) is the primary administrative Board; in other words, the ABA develops and administers the assessments for PM. The ABPN is responsible for credentialing applications for our diplomates, and for issuing certifications for diplomates who qualify by passing the PM assessments. Please also note that the ABPN’s Article-Based Continuing Certification (ABCC) pathway is not available for PM, since we are not the primary administrative Board for PM.
Important Information for All ABPN Diplomates Currently Certified in Pain Medicine:
Per ABA policy, all PM-certified diplomates must participate in the Pain Medicine Longitudinal Assessment (PM LA) to fulfill the assessment component of your continuing certification requirements for your PM certification.
Beginning 2024, the ABA no longer offers a traditional continuing certification examination for those holding current certification in Pain Medicine. Now the ABA’s PM ASPEX (PM CC/re-entry exam) is only available for those diplomates who do not meet the LA-BIM performance standard or whose certifications have expired for a year or less – thisapplication will only be available upon request. If a diplomate’s certification has been lapsed for more than one year, they will be required to take the Pain Medicine initial certification exam to become certified again.
ABPN diplomates are expected to participate in the ABA’s longitudinal assessment, via the ABA’s aimeQED application, which serves as the platform to participate in the PM LA, to fulfill the Assessment requirement to continue certification in Pain Medicine.
All Pain Medicine certified diplomates must participate in the PM LA to continue their certification, regardless of certification end dates or when they last took the Pain Medicine examination.
ABPN Pain Medicine diplomates are required to answer 15 questions quarterly through the aimeQED platform, for a total of 60 questions per calendar year. Early and continued quarterly participation in the LA will allow an easier path to successful participation in the ongoing Pain Medicine longitudinal assessment.
If you have more questions about the Pain Medicine longitudinal assessment please view the FAQs here or visit the ABA website, www.theaba.org.
If you still have any questions OR if you need a new aimeQED account activation email sent to you to begin participating in the Pain Medicine Longitudinal Assessment, please contact the ABPN at questions@abpn.org.
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