By 2022, all ABPMR diplomates certified in pain medicine will be expected to participate in LA-Pain on an ongoing basis. Access the aimeQED platform here.
Longitudinal Assessment for Pain Medicine
LA-Pain Now Available for ABPMR Diplomates
Longitudinal assessment (LA) is now available for continuing certification in pain medicine. Similar to ABPMR’s LA-PM&R program, LA-Pain is a learning platform designed to assess your knowledge, provide immediate feedback, help you identify knowledge gaps, and link to resources to help you learn and improve over time.
The success of the ABPMR’s longitudinal assessment pilot for PM&R encouraged the ABPMR Board of Directors to approve the same format for pain medicine diplomates when the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) offered a platform for non-anesthesiologists.
Administered by the ABA, and in partnership with the ABPMR, LA-Pain is now available for all PM&R diplomates who hold a subspecialty certificate in a pain medicine.
LA-Pain Basics
Platform and Program Design
LA-Pain is designed to help maintain certification and improve your skills by answering quarterly questions on pain medicine that can be done conveniently using your own computer or tablet.
-
Quarterly Questions
Each quarter you will receive 15 multiple-choice questions assessing your core knowledge of pain medicine, for a total of 60 questions annually. Once accessed, participants will have 60 seconds to answer each question. Emailed reminders will alert you to the opening of a new quarter and questions are available to answer. Follow-up reminders are sent regularily until all the quarter's are answered.
-
Learning Tools
As an opportunity for self-directed learning, you will have access to a Knowledge Assessment Report, that includes the last 60 questions in your question history. Using this, you can review your previous quarters’ material including the questions, key points, and references.
-
Resources
If your Knowledge Assessment Report identifies specific areas for further learning, the platform will also link to Continuing Medical Education (CME) opportunities relevant to those learning areas.
-
Scoring
Your performance is analyzed in real-time based on a process from the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) called Measurement Decision Theory (MDT). MDT is based on the probability that you are keeping your knowledge up to date based on question difficulty and your pattern of responses. See here for more information about MDT.
-
Cost
See the Longitudinal Assessment Calendar for enrollment dates and cost.
Implementation of LA-Pain
Timeline for Diplomates with Pain Medicine Certificates:
Expiring in 2022 & Beyond
-
By Fall of 2021: All Pain Medicine diplomates enroll in LA-Pain to fulfill examination requirement
-
January 2022: All Pain Medicine diplomates start answering questions (15 questions administered per quarter)
-
Performance displayed in real time on dashboard
-
Meet the LA-Pain performance standard by the end of your certification expiration year
-
Following recertification, you will begin a new 5-year cycle if all CC requirements are met, including LA-Pain
-
Continue participating in LA-Pain on an ongoing basis
Re-Entry
Getting Back On Track
Should you not meet the performance standard set by the ABA at the end of your current certification cycle, your certificate will expire, and you will no longer be certified in pain medicine. You will have two options to regain your certification:
Re-entry via LA-Pain
- Continue participation in the LA-Pain and meet the performance standard in the year immediately following expiration. Your certification will be expired during this year of participation and will be regained if you meet the performance standard at the end of the year. Please note that LA-Pain for Re-Entry is only available the first year immediately following expiration.
Re-entry via Pain Medicine Examination
- Take and pass the Pain Medicine Re-Entry Examination tin the first year immediately following expiration. The examination is offered biannually in late winter, and late summer/early fall.
- The Re-Entry Examination is only available the first year immediately following expiration. Beyond that point, you will be required to take and pass the Pain Medicine Initial Certification Examination. For more details, sign into your abpmr.org account and visit the Exam Center.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
What if my pain medicine certificate expires in 2022 or beyond?
-
How am I assessed on my LA-Pain performance?
Your performance is assessed based on Measurement Decision Theory (MDT) from the ABA. See here for more information about MDT
-
How will I know if I meet the LA-Pain performance standard?
Whether or not you’re meeting the performance standard will be displayed on your LA-Pain dashboard and updated in real time—if you’re wondering how you’re doing, just sign into your dashboard! If you meet the LA-Pain performance standard set by the ABA at the end of the year in which your certificate expires, your knowledge assessment requirement for CC will be fulfilled and you will begin a new five-year cycle.
-
Will you keep issuing 10-year certificates for pain medicine?
Beginning in 2024, ABPMR will no longer be issuing 10-year certificates. Upon closing out your 10-year certificate, you will recertify with a five-year cycle.
-
What if I don’t meet the LA-Pain performance standard?
Throughout your participation in LA-Pain, you will receive immediate feedback regarding correct and incorrect answers as well as rationales and resources to help you learn—and your dashboard will continually update, showing you in real time whether or not you’re meeting the standard. We expect you’ll learn and improve over time, and there will be plenty of advance notice if you’re not meeting the standard.
However, if you do not meet the standard at the end of your certification cycle, your certificate will expire. In the first year immediately following expiration, you may then regain your certification by either meeting the performance standard after one year of LA-Pain participation, or a successful attempt on the Pain Medicine Re-Entry Examination (during which your certificate will be expired). Following one year of expiration, your only option to regain certification is through the Pain Medicine Initial Certification Examination. See the Re-Entry section for more information.
-
How do I study for LA-Pain?
Longitudinal assessment is not the same as an exam. Instead of employing “study-then-test” thinking, try to think of the platform as the study tool, because participation in LA-Pain is designed to help you learn and improve over time. As you answer questions, the platform will show you the areas in which you have knowledge gaps and it will provide resources for improvement and further learning—and the spaced repetition feature will keep bringing back topics with opportunity for improvement.
If you’d like to review the areas that will be covered by LA-Pain, you may review the content outline for the Pain Medicine Examination from the ABA.
-
Can I access questions I’ve answered in previous quarters?
Yes, you will have access to a Knowledge Assessment Report that includes the last 60 questions you’ve answered from past quarters, including the question, correct answer, rationale, and reference, along with resources for further learning if applicable.
-
What if I don’t complete all of the questions during a quarter?
In order to take full advantage of the spaced repetition feature, we encourage you to complete all questions within a quarter. However, unanswered questions do carryover to the next quarter; the system allows you to answer a daily maximum of 15 questions. The deadline to answer all questions for the year is December 31 at 11:59 pm EST.
-
Do I get any CME or self-assessment credit by participating in LA-Pain?
As of now, no credit will be offered.