06/04/2018    Name Withheld 1

The High Cost of ABFAS Certification

Much like Name Withheld, I also wish to remain
anonymous for fear of incurring the wrath of
ABFAS, which carries far too much power over our
career progression. I failed the case review for
RRA this year and the justification provided was
ridiculous, arbitrary and in just about every case
flat out wrong, which suggests to me my cases
weren't actually reviewed with any degree of
scrutiny. Unfortunately, we have no recourse
other than "you still have 2 more years of
eligibility so try again next year."

It's well known among my colleagues that it's a
scam and you'll pass in your 6th or 7th year. If
ABFAS was concerned about quality of its
diplomates, the case review would be more of a
formality and would have a very high first time
pass rate. There are excellent foot and ankle
surgeons doing very high quality work that are
being held back by ABFAS for no purpose other than
they can pay the fees again next year. This could
easily be considered restriction of trade and I
wonder to what extent the APMA is monitoring the
rapidly growing discontent with ABFAS.

I keep seeing doctors complaining about the low
pass rate for ABFAS certification, and to me it’s
part of a bigger problem. Board certification is
not a “participation trophy”. You don’t get it
because you tried hard or paid a lot of money for
school. It is there to set doctors apart. It
should be hard. The pass rate should be low. We
should hold ourselves to a higher standard. It’s a
surgical board. Not all MD and DOs are surgeons,
not all DPMs should be surgeons either. That’s a
big part of why we are fighting a battle in many
locations for surgical privileges, years ago,
everyone was equal, and some of those DPMs should
not have been operating. But that has been the
stigma that plagues podiatry.

The MD/DO who pictures us as podiatrists doing
surgeries that we should not be doing, or not
doing them well, or simply having repeated bad
outcomes. This is part of why we fight for scope
and privileges in parts of this country still.
Some of us are meant to be medical/biomechanical
experts, not surgeons. I do believe the
examination system is horrible. The computerized
examination should go away and go back to oral
exams. But that doesn’t mean everyone should pass.

If everyone passes, why does the board
certification exist? Why not just hand all
graduating residents a board certification? We
need something that sets a higher standard than
simply finishing residency, and board
certification is that standard. That’s how we
advance our profession, set a high standard. You
should have to come up to meet a standard, it
should not come to you.

Name Wthhheld 2

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