Advocacy Update

Hospice and Palliative Medicine Advisory Committee Guides Specialty Physician Certification

Laura Dingfield, MD MSEd FAAHPM

Navigating Multiple ABMS Board Paths to HPM Certification

American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) board certification for physicians in hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) was first made available in 2008 and eventually offered by ten different member boards, with the initial certification exam administered by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). While individual ABMS member boards have issued their own certificates in HPM, until recently there was little discussion among them and no centralized body to address cross-cutting issues specific to the discipline. There was no forum, for example, for aligning policies on initial and continuing certification, which have differed significantly among the various boards. That all changed in 2021 when the participating ABMS boards came together to create the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Advisory Committee, a cosponsored governance body intended to act as a policy-oriented steward of the HPM discipline.