ABIM Announces New Members on Board of Directors and Council Who Will Help Advance Strategic Innovations and Partnerships

Philadelphia, July 6, 2016 – The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) today appointed Yul D. Ejnes, MD, and Rajeev Jain, MD, to its Board of Directors. Robert D. Siegel, MD, and Joseph C. Farmer, MD, are joining the ABIM Council.

Both ABIM's Board of Directors and Council are comprised of physicians with academic and clinical practice experience, interprofessional health care team members and public members. As part of ABIM's governance structure, these groups are charged with strategic oversight and lead innovation in assessment methods. They also work to ensure that enhancements to Certification and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) are informed by input from physicians and medical societies.

"ABIM's Board of Directors acts on insights distilled from our conversations with the diverse physician community to create programs that better reflect how doctors practice today and ensure ABIM continues to be a dynamic and forward-looking organization," said Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of ABIM. "The Board and Council are excited to welcome new members with a variety of practice experiences who are eager to share their unique insights and work with fellow doctors to continually improve Certification and MOC."

The Board of Directors sets the future direction, strategy and goals for the organization to ensure the relevance and value of ABIM Certification and develops and maintains important relationships in the health care community.

New members announced today:

• Yul D. Ejnes, MD, co-founded Coastal Medical, Inc. in 1995 and practices internal medicine full time. Located in Cranston, Rhode Island, Coastal Medical, Inc. is the state's largest private practice and is a Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home and a Medicare accountable care organization. Dr. Ejnes is Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He serves as a member of ABIM's Internal Medicine Board.

• Rajeev Jain, MD, has been in private practice in Dallas, Texas since 1999. He is a Partner at Texas Digestive Disease Consultants and serves as Chief of Gastroenterology at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas. Dr. Jain also is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.

"ABIM continued to engage with and learn from physicians over the last year, and I am proud of how responsive the organization has been to their requests for more relevant programs that help them stay current in their specialty," said Clarence H. Braddock III, MD, Chair of the ABIM Board of Directors. "ABIM governance has embraced this opportunity for change and I know that new members will strengthen our partnerships and commitments to the profession and public."

The ABIM Council designs policies and procedures for Certification and MOC with peers across all the specialties of internal medicine to ensure the quality, relevance and effectiveness of ABIM's programs.

New Specialty Board Chairs and Council Members announced today:

• Robert D. Siegel, MD, is an Oncology Program Director for the Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville, South Carolina. Prior to his appointment to program leadership at St. Francis, Dr. Siegel was a community-based oncologist with particular interest in quality improvement initiatives and cancer care delivery research. Dr. Siegel is a member of the ABIM Board of Directors and Chair of the ABIM Medical Oncology Board.

• Joseph C. Farmer, MD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic Arizona. He is a retired Air Force Colonel and Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine. Dr. Farmer is one of the founders of the Department of Defense Critical Care Aeromedical Transport Team program, the largest critical care transport system in the world. Dr. Farmer is Chair of the ABIM Critical Care Medicine Board.

"ABIM has already made major strides by partnering with physicians to improve the MOC process, including updates of subspecialty MOC exams and creation of a more seamless process to earn MOC credit for approved continuing medical education activities," said Jeanne M. Marrazzo, MD, MPH, Chair of the ABIM Council. "Our new governance members will advance these initiatives, and the Council will continue to focus on the evolution of new MOC assessment options."

About ABIM
For 80 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.