ABIM sanctions docs for sharing exam info
The American Board of Internal Medicine sanctioned 139 physicians for soliciting or sharing confidential examination questions used to certify doctors in internal medicine and its subspecialties.
Officials at ABIM, which is based in Philadelphia, also said the board initiated legal action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania last week against five physicians who were among the most egregious offenders.
The sanctioned physicians participated in Arora Board Review, an independent test-preparation course provider based in Livingston, N.J., that purported to help physicians prepare for board certification exams. Participants in the course were allegedly encouraged to relay questions from memory to the company immediately after they took an ABIM examination. They were also allegedly provided with questions obtained by other physicians who had completed ABIM examinations.
Through an extensive investigation, ABIM established that the physicians being sanctioned shared or solicited actual ABIM examination questions — which it called a significant breach in the professional standards ABIM requires of all of its board-certified physicians and any physician taking the exam for certification bad credit payday advance. Hundreds of questions were compromised and immediately removed from the ABIM exam question pool.
“Physicians are, and should be, held to an exceptionally high standard of clinical skill and ethical behavior,” said Dr. Christine K. Cassel, ABIM’s president and CEO. “Board certification provides patients with assurance that the physicians they choose are competent and knowledgeable in their chosen field of practice. Through the actions we are taking today, we are telling patients that they can trust this process; and we are sending a very clear message to physicians. Anyone who seeks to compromise the integrity of our examinations will face swift and serious consequences.”