Cardiology leaders held a town call at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session 2025 in Chicago to share their thoughts on the recent rejection of a new, independent cardiology certification board, Medscape reported March 30.
Last year, five medical societies, including the ACC, the American Heart Association, the Heart Failure Society of America, the Heart Rhythm Society and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Intervention submitted a formal application for a new board called the American Board of Cardiovascular Medicine, which would be governed and operated by the ABMS.
Jeffrey Kuvin, MD, president of the American Board of Cardiovascular Medicine and chair of cardiology at Northwell Health in New York, asked town hall attendees for a show of hands as to whether the prospective new board should resubmit an application at the two-year minimum window set by the ABMS, find a solution outside the ABMS or stop the effort to create the board. Almost all raised their hands for finding a solution outside of the board, according to the report.
“People are fed up and they want alternatives,” Dr. Kuvin said. ACC President Cathleen Biga, MD, said that ABMS rejection was “devastating.”
In order to certify competency outside the ABMS, the new board may pursue the creation of a conjoint board, which would require at least two parent sponsors. A conjoint board arrangement exists in allergy and immunology, according to the report, and “is the only board under ABMS that has two parents” Dr. Kuvin said.
“We need to find our two parents,” he added. “The ABIM would likely be one of the two parents, perhaps ABP or thoracic surgery or another. That’s an avenue that we could evaluate.”
“[Cardiology] has become a distinct and different field, and so falling under internal medicine is where that rub is,” Dr. Biga said. “We want our cardiologists to be certified in what they do every day.”
Another option would be to certify through the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons, Edward Fry, MD, a cardiologist at Ascension St. Vincent in Carmel, Ind., told Medscape. In the short term, conversations with ABIM will continue.
“Over the last 10 years, we have tried to work directly with the ABIM to address the issues around burden, relevance, mechanics, and competency issues, and to date there’s been a lot of pushback,” Dr. Fry reported. “There’s new leadership at ABIM now, and maybe that will change; we’re certainly open to having those discussions.”
The post Cardiologist board dispute heats up appeared first on Becker’s ASC.
