Certifying excellence in pediatrics – for a healthier tomorrow
THE AMERICAN BOARD
of
PEDIATRICS
THE AMERICAN BOARD
of
PEDIATRICS
111 Silver Cedar Court
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-1513
919.929.0461
www.abp.org
Congratulations on your recent achievement of Board Certication or Maintenance of
Certication in General Pediatrics or a pediatric subspecialty. Many diplomates include
information about their certication status on letterhead, business cards and other materials.
Board Certication is an important marker of your competence and skill, and the American
Board of Pediatrics (ABP) encourages you to showcase this accomplishment with your patients,
your colleagues and the public.
We thought it would be useful to provide some specic guidelines to accurately state your ABP
Certication. We ask that you follow these guidelines throughout your career.
ABP’s ofcial policy is as follows:
Diplomates of the ABP must accurately state their certication status at all times. This
includes descriptions in curriculum vitae, advertisements, publications, directories,
and letterheads. Diplomates with expired time-limited certication or those whose
certication is revoked may
not claim board certication by the ABP and must revise
all descriptions of their qualications accordingly. When a physician misrepresents
certification status, the ABP may notify local credentialing bodies, licensing bodies,
and others, as well as impose an administrative penalty or take legal action.
Your certication status is reported publicly on the ABP’s Web site, www.abp.org and through
the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), which establishes standards for
physician specialty certification for its 24 member boards, including the ABP. If you would
like to include an ABP logo noting your certification status on your website or other
materials, you may find it under "resources" at www.MyCertifiedPediatrician.org.
The ABP does not mandate the specifics of how diplomates state their certification, except
to say diplomates should not state or imply that they are certified if their certification has
expired. If you have multiple certifications and allow one of them to lapse, you should revise
your public materials (letterhead, business cards, advertisements, etc.) to reflect those
certifications that are currently valid. For example, if your original general pediatric
certification has lapsed and you are now certified in a subspecialty, only the subspecialty
certification should be stated.
continued...
Guidelines for Stating Your Certication Status
Following are examples of accurate statements of certication:
9 Once you have successfully passed your initial certication exam or renewed your
certication through the ABP’s Maintenance of Certication program, you may represent
that you are “ABP Board Certied in (general pediatrics and/or your subspecialty)” or a
“Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics:”
• John Doe, MD, ABP Board Certied in General Pediatrics
• John Doe, MD, a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics
9 If you maintain more than one current and valid certicate, you may indicate that you are
Board Certied in both areas:
• John Doe, MD, ABP Certied in General Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology
9 You may mention your certication was issued by The American Board of Pediatrics. For
example, if you hold a subspecialty certicate in pediatric cardiology, you may represent
yourself as:
• John Doe, MD, Board Certied in Pediatric Cardiology by the American Board of
Pediatrics
9 Important: Please be sure to correctly state your certication status. In addition, pay
attention to your group practice listings. A blanket statement that everyone in a group
is Board Certied may be misleading if multiple specialties are listed and some group
members are certied in certain specialties and others are not currently certied. The ABP
expects that certications will be listed individually or stated in a way that is not misleading.
Aside from accuracy and ABP requirements, inaccurate statements of certication may
create embarrassment or legal issues. The ABP understands that maintaining currency in
stating the certication status of groups of physicians may not be easy. We encourage you
to work with your colleagues to be sure the certications you represent to the public are
current and accurate.
Feel free to contact the ABP whenever you have a question about stating your certication.
Call 919.929.0461 or email: [email protected].
