LA-PMR

Looking Forward to 2020: A New Era in Certification

It's been years in the making — and at times the field grew impatient. But our board of directors believes a major shift in the MOC Program should be thoughtfully done, and only after evidence has been gathered and analyzed.

From the initial announcement to designing and conducting the pilot, including an unplanned acceleration; from determining the pilot was a success and the stellar user satisfaction ratings, and then the plans for implementation designed to include flexibility for those classes on the cusp of recertification — until now, when we're nearly ready to launch Longitudinal Assessment for PM&R (LA-PM&R) early next month.

Having been in the examination world for our entire history, we understood it would take some time for diplomates to understand several shifts happening with longitudinal assessment: Shifting out of exam thinking to longitudinal thinking; reframing studying and preparation; understanding the evolution of time-limited certification; and more. To help elucidate these and more, we've released a series of articles over the past year that dive deeper into these different shifts in thinking. Click the images to read more:

Launching LA-PM&R for MOC is an accomplishment we couldn't have achieved without the efforts of our volunteers, including our 15 board directors guiding the vision; 36 LA-PM&R item writers learning a new method of writing items with critiques and clones; and the more than 300 LA-PM&R pilot participants who completed the pilot, including answering questions and taking the MOC Examination last February. This work, in addition to the thousands of hours from ABPMR staff members, has us all looking forward to the future of certification.

Soon, ABPMR diplomates no longer will take a point-in-time, secure, general PM&R examination to test what you know. Starting in just two weeks, you will begin being assessed on both your current knowledge as well as what you can learn. You'll customize your assessment according to your preferences, and then begin engaging in a learning platform that has demonstrated improvement in memory retention and assistance in learning over time. It is the hope of ABPMR board directors, staff, and volunteers that through LA-PM&R and other innovations, diplomates will find increasing value and meaning in their board certification.