I get emails after bemoaning the inefficient / laughable requirements being imposed by ABEM for continuous certification, and while I thank them for writing I’m not interested in being the Lonely Critic who Wails at ABEM.

So, allow me to publish (with their permission) someone elses’ lament at the current state of ABEM:

Thank you so much about your column about ABEM! It is making me feel like I am not the only one going thru this. We have 150 hours of CME required now, 4 through my state, 8 through my insurance, and now I find we can’t count the LLSA’s as continuous ed! Plus the articles in LLSA are horrible.

I took my CONCERT this year and the scores still aren’t out 8 weeks later for a computerized test. Someone needs to rise up against ABEM, they are not our advocates. I felt like maybe ACEP can help but I don’t think they can. ABEM I think is run by a lot of ivory tower guys who work 4 shifts a month in a University Hospital with the residents doing all the work. Thanks again for your columns!

One of my colleagues recently took the recertification test, which is now computer-based, and his description was less than flattering. “It’s like they scanned a photograph of a slide, and then uploaded that for the test”. He’s also about 8 weeks out from the test, and awaiting his scores…

I don’t want to be the anti-ABEM forum (is EMED-L still around?) but when I get emails like this it tells me I’m not alone in wanting ABEM to perform better. Significantly better.