ABIM Announces New Specialty Board and Exam Committee Members Who Will Join Ongoing Efforts to Enhance MOC Assessments

Philadelphia, July 6, 2016 – The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) today announced new appointments to its governance structure, including several new Specialty Board members and Exam Committee members.

Specialty Boards are composed of physicians from a diverse range of practice types, interprofessional health care team members and public members. The Boards work with physicians and medical societies to collaboratively design performance-based Certification and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credentials that are a source of pride for the profession and are recognizable and meaningful to the public.

"Specialty Boards have helped ABIM engage physicians across several disciplines to rate MOC exam content to ensure it reflects what physicians in practice need to know," said Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of ABIM. "Our new members will make important contributions to this process, which will remain essential as ABIM plans to begin offering physicians MOC assessment options that better meet their needs. ABIM governance will also lead ongoing conversations with the community to help refine these options."

ABIM's 20 Exam Committees are responsible for developing relevant, clinically valid and rigorous exams and assessment innovations for Certification and MOC. Exam Committee members are involved in direct patient care in a variety of geographic locations and institutional settings.

"ABIM Exam Committee members are working side-by-side with physicians in their specialty area to set the level of performance required to pass MOC exams," said Patricia M. Conolly, MD, Chair-elect of ABIM's Board of Directors and emeritus member of the ABIM Internal Medicine Board Exam Committee. "New committee members will bring on-the-ground knowledge from their discipline to this evidence-based, peer-defined process in order to develop reliable and fair performance standards for current and future assessments."

View lists of current ABIM Specialty Board members and current Exam Committee members.

New members of the ABIM Specialty Boards and Exam Committees include:

Cardiovascular Board Cardiovascular Disease Exam Committee:

Mina K. Chung, MD, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiologist, Heart and Vascular Institute, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and Lerner Research Institute Department of Molecular Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic; and Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

Barbara Hutchinson, MD, PhD, Managing Partner of Chesapeake Cardiac Care, P.A., Annapolis, Maryland; and Instructor, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland.

Cardiovascular Board Interventional Cardiology Exam Committee:

Dominick J. Angiolillo, MD, PhD, Director of Cardiovascular Research, Program Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship program and Staff Cardiologist and Interventional Cardiologist, University of Florida Health System; Professor of Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida.

James C. Blankenship, MD, MHCM, Interventional Cardiologist, Geisinger Medical Center; Director of the Geisinger cardiology department and catheterization laboratories, Danville, Pennsylvania; and Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Temple University Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Cardiovascular Board Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Exam Committee:

Emile Daoud, MD, Professor, Internal Medicine, and Chief of Cardiac Electrophysiology, Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

N. A. Mark Estes III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, and Director, Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.

Paul A. Friedman, MD, Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

Kalyanam Shivkumar, MD, PhD, Director, University of California, Los Angeles Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Program, Los Angeles, California.

Cardiovascular Board Adult Congenital Heart Disease Exam Committee:

Anne M. Dubin, MD, Director, Pediatric Arrhythmia Service, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, and Professor of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

Arwa Saidi, MB, MEd, Director, Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Critical Care Medicine Board:

Victor Kim, MD, Professor of Medicine, Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the Chair of ABIM's Critical Care Medicine Board Exam Committee.

Critical Care Medicine Board Exam Committee:

Jarrod M. Mosier, MD, Associate Program Director of the Critical Care Medicine Fellowship, Department of Medicine, Section of Pulmonary/Critical Care; dual appointment, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine, The University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson, Tucson, Arizona.

Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism Board:

Marjorie Ewertz, RN, Faculty Member, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Baltimore, Maryland.

Jonathan D. Leffert, MD, Clinical Endocrinologist and Managing Partner, North Texas Endocrine Center, Dallas, Texas.

Gastroenterology Board:

Jane E. Onken, MD, MHS, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, and Director, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic, Duke University Medical Center; faculty, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, North Carolina.

Gastroenterology Board Exam Committee:

David R. Lichtenstein, MD, Director of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Boston Medical Center, and Associate Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.

Ugochukwu C. Nzeako, MD, MPH, Gastroenterologist and Partner, Watson Clinic LLP, Lakeland, Florida.

Christopher E. Shih, MD, Partner, Regional Gastroenterology Associates of Lancaster, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Joseph C. Yarze, MD, private practitioner, Gastroenterology Associates of Northern New York, Glens Falls, New York, and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York.

Hematology Board Exam Committee:

Cindy A. Leissinger, MD, Professor of Medicine, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, and Chief, Hematology/Oncology Division, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.

David P. Steensma, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Myelodysplastic Syndromes Clinical Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.

Hospital Medicine Exam-Writing Committee (reports to the Internal Medicine Board):

Benjamin A. Hohmuth, MD, Director for the Department of Hospital Medicine, Geisinger Medical Center; and Director for Patient Blood Management, Geisinger Health System, Danville, Pennsylvania.

Infectious Disease Board Exam Committee:

Howard M. Heller, MD, Associate Medical Director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Associate Physician, in the infectious disease unit, Massachusetts General Hospital; and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Internal Medicine Board:

Saima I. Chaudhry, MD, MSHS, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer, Memorial Healthcare System, Hollywood, Florida.

Internal Medicine Board Exam Committee:

Ritesh B. Patel, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine; general internist, Division of Hospital Medicine, and co-Director, Foundation of Medical Practice Curriculum, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Camden, New Jersey.

Rachel P. Simmons, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Associate Program Director for the Residency Program in Internal Medicine, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.

Christopher M. Walsh, MD, founding physician and Medical Director, Virginia Hospital Center Physician Group-Primary Care Arlington, Arlington, Virginia; and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, District of Columbia.

Medical Oncology Board:

Tracey Gamer Fanning, brain cancer survivor, co-Founder of the Connecticut Brain Tumor Alliance and patient advocate with regional hospital and patient-care groups regarding cancer, brain tumors and medical marijuana, West Hartford, Connecticut. She is a public member of the ABIM Medical Oncology Board.

Robert G. Maki, MD, PhD, Professor, Departments of Medicine and Orthopaedics, and Section Chief, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, New York. Dr. Maki serves as Chair of the ABIM Medical Oncology Board Exam Committee.

Medical Oncology Board Exam Committee:

David J. Vaughn, MD, Genitourinary Medical Oncology Professor at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and Associate Chief for Clinical Affairs in the Hematology/Oncology Division, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Nephrology Board:

Gary G. Singer, MD, founding partner, Midwest Nephrology Associates; Medical Director of two chronic dialysis clinics with Fresenius Kidney Care; and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.

Nephrology Board Exam Committee:

Phyllis August, MD, MPH, Ralph A. Baer MD Professor of Research in Medicine and Professor of Medicine, Public Health and Medicine in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine; Attending Physician, New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell and Director, NYP-Weill Cornell Hypertension Center, New York, New York.

Pulmonary Disease Board Exam Committee:

Joseph M. Forrester, MD, President of Critical Care and Pulmonary Consultants, P.C., Denver, Colorado; Director of Hospitalist Services of the Intensive Care Unit at The Medical Center of Aurora, Aurora, Colorado.

Rheumatology Board Exam Committee:

Eliza F. Chakravarty, MD, Associate Member, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Jennifer M. Grossman, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); and Director, Lupus Clinical Research, UCLA, Los Angeles, California.

Sleep Medicine Test-Writing Committee:

Maha Alattar, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Neurology and Sleep Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.

Dennis H. Auckley, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Sleep Medicine, Case Western Reserve University (MetroHealth Medical Center); and Associate Director of the Case Sleep Fellowship Program and MetroHealth's Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program, Cleveland, Ohio.

Deepa Burman, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh; Faculty at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) McKeesport Family Medicine Residency; Director for Resident Research and Scholarly Activity and Director of Primary Care Sleep Medicine Clinic at the residency program; and staff member at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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.