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Mission
The mission of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Inc. is to serve the public interest and the professions of psychiatry and neurology by promoting excellence in practice through certification and maintenance of certification processes.
Methods for achieving that goal include (but are not limited to) efforts to:
1. Describe, in terms of knowledge and skills, a physician with special expertise in evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with psychiatric and/or neurologic disorders or who require psychiatric and/or neurologic assessment.
2. Set the standards for knowledge and skills required for certification.
3. Construct and administer examinations designed to evaluate required knowledge and skills.
4. Monitor, evaluate, and improve the standards and procedures of the certification process.
5. Participate in the appropriate Residency Review Committees of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to set standards for the quality and scope of residency training programs to ensure that their graduates will obtain necessary training credit toward certification.
6. Issue certificates and other forms of recognition to successful candidates.
7. Make lists available of diplomates who have fulfilled the requirements for certification.
8. Inform the public, other professions, and other medical organizations of the purposes, activities, and responsibilities of the Corporation.
9. Participate in the activities of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and its member Boards.
History
The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Inc. (ABPN) is a nonprofit corporation that was founded in 1934 following conferences of committees appointed by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Neurological Association, and the then Section on Nervous and Mental Diseases of the American Medical Association. This action was taken as a method of identifying the qualified specialists in psychiatry and neurology.
The ABPN is one of 24 member boards of the ABMS.
Since 1935, when its first examination was delivered, the ABPN has been serving the public interest and promoting excellence in the practices of psychiatry and neurology through its certification and maintenance of certification processes. These processes are designed to identify qualified specialists through rigorous credential and training requirements and successful completion of the Part I (computer-administered) and Part II (oral) board examinations for psychiatry, neurology, or neurology with special qualification in child neurology. ABPN committees are dedicated to developing tests that assess current scientific knowledge and clinical expertise required to achieve and maintain Board certification.
Additionally, over the past several decades, the ABPN (sometimes in collaboration with other member boards) has sought from the ABMS and gained approval for recognition of 11 subspecialties, as listed below:
ABMS
Approval |
First
Examination |
Subspecialty |
| * |
1959 |
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry |
| 1989 |
1991 |
Geriatric Psychiatry |
| 1990 |
1992 |
Clinical Neurophysiology |
| 1991 |
1993 |
Addiction Psychiatry |
| 1992 |
1994 |
Forensic Psychiatry |
| 1998 |
2000 |
Pain Medicine |
| 1999 |
2001 |
Neurodevelopmental Disabilities |
| 2003 |
2005 |
Psychosomatic Medicine |
| 2003 |
2005 |
Vascular Neurology |
| 2005 |
scheduled 2008 |
Neuromuscular Medicine |
| 2005 |
scheduled 2007 |
Sleep Medicine |
| 2006 |
scheduled 2008 |
Hospice and Palliative Medicine |
*Certificates were issued prior to 1972 when ABMS recognition procedures were established.
As mandated by the ABMS, the ABPN continues making progress in the development of its Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Program. MOC programs are designed to help assure the public that our diplomates practice their specialties to the highest standards through four measurable components: professional standing, self-assessment and lifelong learning, cognitive expertise, and performance in practice.
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