ABMS Announces Class of 2024-2025 Visiting Scholars

Eleven scholars will receive financial awards for research in competency-based evaluations, patient outcomes, diagnostic excellence, and diversity, equity, and inclusion as it relates to board certification.

CHICAGO, Sept. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has selected eleven outstanding individuals to participate in its 2024-2025 Visiting Scholars Program™. Established in 2014, the one-year, part-time program supports early-career physicians and researchers in scholarship and leadership development focusing on initial and continuing board certification. Each Visiting Scholar receives a $15,000 financial award.

"We are pleased to support 11 ABMS Visiting Scholars this year," stated Greg Ogrinc, MD, MS, ABMS Senior Vice President, Certification Standards and Programs. "This new cohort of scholars will advance research and scholarship in high-priority areas for the certification community, including patient outcomes, diagnostic excellence, and diversity, equity, and inclusion."

ABMS Visiting Scholars are selected based on the quality of their proposed research project, the relevance of their research to the ABMS mission and the certification community, and the possibility of making considerable progress on the research project during the scholar year. Program participants remain at their home institutions, collaborate with self-selected mentors, and participate in monthly virtual sessions with research project-in-progress updates to peers, mentors, subject matter experts, and ABMS Visiting Scholar alumni.

The ABMS Visiting Scholars is a year-long program. This cohort will begin in October 2024 and their term will culminate at the ABMS Conference 2025, when they will present their research before a national audience.

The 2024-2025 Visiting Scholars and their co-sponsoring organization are:

American Board of Medical Specialties Research and Education Foundation (ABMS—REF)

• A. Reema Kar, MD, FACS – Rutgers/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
  
  Project: The Development of Confidence in Surgery: Can Confidence Be Taught and Learned?
  
  
• Joshua Sheak, MD, PhD – Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
  
  Project: Representation of Indigenous Peoples in the Pediatrics and Pediatric Subspecialty Workforce

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

• Grant Shafer, MD, MA, FAAP – Children's Hospital of Orange County/University of California Irvine, School of Medicine (Pediatrics)
  
  Project: Determining the Frequency of Diagnostic Errors in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Surrounding Transport Using the Safer Dx NICU Instrument
  
  
• Abigail Winkel, MD, MHPE, FACOG – New York University Grossman School of Medicine
  
  Project: Decision-Making on the Labor Floor: Assessment of Obstetrician-Gynecologists' Expertise Amidst Uncertainty

American Board of Dermatology

• Vinod Nambudiri, MD, MBA, MPH, EdM – Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
  
  Project: Exploring Quantitative Outcomes of Specialized Joint Training and Research Training Tracks in Dermatology

American Board of Emergency Medicine

• The J. David Barry, M.D. Visiting Scholar is David Yang, MD, MHS – Yale School of Medicine
  
  Project: Anti-Asian Racial Discrimination and Burnout in Asian American Emergency Resident Physicians

American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology

• R. Nicholas Burns, MD, FACOG – University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  
  Project: Evaluating the Relationship of ABOG Certification with Early Career Patient Outcomes in Obstetrics and Gynecology

American Board of Ophthalmology

• Julius Oatts, MD – University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
  
  Project: The Step I Pass/Fail Era: Are Step 2 Scores and Sociodemographic Characteristics Related to OKAP and Board Certification Examination Performance?

American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery

• Daniel London, MD, MS – University of Missouri Health Care
  
  Project: Standardizing Orthopedic Competency Evaluation: Determining the Inter- and Intra-Rater Agreement and Reliability of Orthopaedic Surgery Evaluators

American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

• Allison Wallingford, MD – University of Washington Medicine
  
  Project: Use of Biased Language in the Medical Record to Describe Patients after Traumatic Brain Injury

American Board of Urology

• Hailey Silverii, MD – Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
  
  Project: Development, Validation, and Impact of the Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Pyeloplasty Skills Assessment Rubric (PySAR)

About ABMS
Established in 1933, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is responsible for the creation of standards overseeing physician certification in the United States. Dedicated to improving the quality of care to the patients, families, and communities they serve, the 24 ABMS Member Boards develop educational and professional standards and programs of assessment to certify physicians and medical specialists. More than 985,000 physicians and medical specialists are certified by one or more of the ABMS Member Boards in one or more of 40 specialties and 89 subspecialties. For more information about ABMS, visit abms.org or call (312) 436-2600.

SOURCE American Board of Medical Specialties