ABIM Continues to Evolve Governance Structure Non-Physicians Added to All Levels of Governance

Philadelphia, PA, July 1, 2014 – The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) today announced the newest members of its Board of Directors, Council and Specialty Boards, which includes the addition of more than 24 non-physicians and 14 community-based internists.

"Much has changed in public expectations of physicians, medical practice, health care delivery, medical education and the science of performance in the past few decades," said Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of ABIM. "To better achieve its mission of certifying doctors with the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for excellent patient care, the ABIM governance structure has evolved to reflect the change in landscape and include a broader perspective than that of academic internists."

Debra L. Ness, President, National Partnership for Women & Families and Sonia Madison, President, Madison Consulting, are the new non-physician members of the ABIM Board of Directors.

Marianne M. Green, MD, is the Associate Dean for Medical Education and Competency Achievement and Director of the Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University Fienberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois and the newest internist to join the Board of Directors.

The ABIM Board of Directors oversees the overall strategic direction of the organization. It also supports efforts to make Maintenance of Certification (MOC) and the Certification credential relevant and valuable to the broader health care community and to all the internists who participate in it. Per ABIM by-laws, a majority of physician board members must be practicing physicians. All physicians who serve on ABIM Boards, Committees and Council are also required to be "Meeting MOC Requirements."

In addition to the three new members, the ABIM Board includes (complete bios):

Chair of the Board, David H. Johnson, MD, the Donald W. Seldin Distinguished Chair in Internal Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.

Chair-Elect, Clarence H. Braddock III, MD, Vice Dean for Education, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California.

Secretary, Patricia M. Conolly, MD, Associate Executive Director of The Permanente Medical Group, Oakland, California.

Treasurer, Stuart L. Linas, MD, the Rocky Mountain Professor of Renal Research, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado.

ABIM President & CEO, Richard J. Baron, MD, community general internist for nearly 30 years.

William J. Bremner, MD, the Robert G. Petersdorf Endowed Chair in Medicine and Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Spokane, Washington.

David L. Coleman, MD, the John Wade Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, the Harold H. Hines Jr. Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, and Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, New Haven, Connecticut.

Olufunmilayo I. Olopade, MD, the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean of Global Health, University of Chicago, Illinois.

Richard P. Shannon, MD, the Louise Nerancy Professor of Health Policy Science and Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Christine A. Sinsky, MD, General Internist, Medical Associates Clinic and Health Plans, Dubuque, Iowa.

"With more than 150,000 internists enrolled in Maintenance of Certification and more than 7,000 newly certified internists each year, we have an obligation to ensure our program is relevant to the physicians who choose to participate and the external organizations and patients who use the credential, that is why we needed to broaden the perspective of our board of directors and our council," said David H. Johnson, MD, Chair of the ABIM Board of Directors. "Physicians recognize they are part of a health care team – that is why it is so important to get the perspectives of all members of the team as we work to define the competencies and skills internists need."

ABIM Council
The newly formed ABIM Council guides the policies and procedures for Certification and Maintenance of Certification in all of the disciplines of internal medicine. The council has also added two new non-physician members. The council's responsibilities are to ensure the quality, relevance and effectiveness of ABIM's programs for Certification and Maintenance of Certification across all the specialties of internal medicine.

The newest members of the ABIM Council include:

Jeffrey S. Burns, MD, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Chair of ABIM's Nephrology Board.

Marcy B. Bolster, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Chair of ABIM's Rheumatology Board.

Susan Edgman-Levitan, Executive Director of the John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. (Non-Physician Member)

Serpil C. Erzurum, MD, the Alfred Lerner Chair of the Department of Pathobiology in the Lerner Research Institute and the Program Director of the Cleveland Clinic Clinical Research Unit of the Case Clinical Translational Science Center, Cleveland, Ohio; Chair of ABIM's Pulmonary Board.

Mariell L. Jessup, MD, Associate Chief-Clinical Affairs of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Medical Director of the Penn Heart and Vascular Center; Chair of ABIM's Cardiology Specialty Board.

Lesley A. Meng, MD, Community-based Medical Oncologist at East Jefferson General Hospital, Metairie, Louisiana.

Dana Safran, ScD, Senior Vice President for Performance Measurement and Improvement at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. (Non-Physician Member)

Henry H. Ting, MD, a noted expert on practice improvement, will assume new role as Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Healthcare System, the University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell in July 2014.

William F. Young Jr., MD, the Tyson Family Endocrinology Clinical Professor and Chair of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism, and Nutrition at the Mayo Clinic; Chair of ABIM's Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Board.

"The ABIM Council serves a vital role in ensuring that ABIM's certification and maintenance of certification programs are representative of how physicians in internal medicine and its subspecialties practice," said Dr. Lee R. Berkowitz, Chair of the ABIM Council. "In addition, the Council makes certain that ABIM programs maintain the highest standards of patient care."

They join the current members of the ABIM Council (complete bios):

Chair of the ABIM Council, Lee R. Berkowitz, MD, Eunice Bernhard Distinguished Professor and Vice-chair for Education in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Chair-Elect, Jeanne M. Marrazzo, MD, Professor in the Division of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, University of Washington, Seattle; Chair of ABIM's Infectious Disease Board.

Marianne M. Green, MD, Associate Dean for Medical Education and Competency Achievement and Director of the Honors Program in Medical Education at the Northwestern University Fienberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois; Chair of ABIM's Internal Medicine Board.

Sharon A. Levine, MD, Professor of Medicine and the Director of Geriatric Educational Innovations in the Geriatrics Section, at Boston University School of Medicine; Chair of ABIM's Geriatric Medicine Board.

Paul Martin, MD, Chief of the Division of Hepatology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Florida; Chair of ABIM's Gastroenterology Board.

Naomi P. O'Grady, MD, Senior Staff physician in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center's Critical Care Medicine Department and the Medical Director of the Clinical Center's Vascular Access and Conscious Sedation Services; Chair of ABIM's Critical Care Medicine Board.

Richard M. Stone, MD, Staff Physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Associate Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Chair of ABIM's Oncology Board.

Jeffrey Wiese, MD, Professor of Medicine with Tenure and the Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana; Chair of ABIM's Hospital Medicine Board.

Michael E. Williams, MD, the Byrd S. Leavell Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pathology, Chief, Hematology/Oncology Division and Director of the Hematologic Malignancies Section at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville; Chair of ABIM's Hematology Board.

The ABIM governance structure includes Specialty Boards which develop the standards for Certification and MOC in the 20 specialties of internal medicine, including oversight of the specialty Exam Committees whose role is to produce ABIM's Certification and Maintenance of Certification exams.

For media inquiries, contact Lorie Slass at 215-399-4005.

About ABIM
For 75 years, certification by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has stood for the highest standard in internal medicine and its 20 subspecialties and has meant that internists have demonstrated – to their peers and to the public – that they have the clinical judgment, skills and attitudes essential for the delivery of excellent patient care. ABIM is not a membership society, but a non-profit, independent evaluation organization. Our accountability is both to the profession of medicine and to the public. ABIM is a member of the American Board of Medical Specialties. For additional updates, follow ABIM on Facebook and Twitter