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Abstract: Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) residents must complete twelve months of fundamental skills training prior to beginning PM&R residency. The objective of this study is to determine if characteristics of the first post-graduate year (PGY-1) impact performance on American Board of PM&R (ABPMR) initial certification examinations. A retrospective review was conducted on a deidentified ABPMR database of physicians who completed PM&R residency and took the Part I Examination between 2008 and 2022. Physicians who completed categorical residency programs in PM&R had higher pass rates on Part I than physicians who completed advanced programs. Physicians who completed a categorical program had higher scaled scores on the Part II Examination than physicians who completed either a transitional or non-transitional advanced program but pass rates did not differ. Completing less than 3 months of training in internal medicine prior to starting PM&R was associated with lower Part I and Part II Examination scaled scores than completing 3 or more months. Physicians who completed six or more months of internal medicine had higher Part I and Part II Examination pass rates and scaled scores than physicians who completed six or more months in surgery., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Abstract: Recognizing the dearth of published research on board certification in physical medicine and rehabilitation and its subspecialties, the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation has increased efforts to conduct and disseminate research in this area. This report summarizes key findings of peer-reviewed studies published by American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation staff and leadership in the past 6 yrs, including those conducted in partnership with other entities. The reported studies are organized in three main categories: initial certification, continuing certification, and subspecialty certification in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Related findings are further grouped into subsections that include psychometric evaluation of certification examinations, association of candidate characteristics with certification performance, relationship of certification performance to other measures, and candidate reaction and feedback. Collectively, the summarized results provide evidence that the board certification process is reliable, statistically valid, and predictive of the risk of disciplinary action in subsequent years. These studies also describe facets of our specialty including degree of subspecialization, burnout, and how people maintain certification over time. We hope that physical medicine and rehabilitation trainees, diplomates, institutions, programs, and other stakeholders find this information useful and look forward to continuing research in these and other areas in the spirit of constant evidence-based improvement and feedback to our specialty., Competing Interests: Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article., (Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Abstract: The American Board of Medical Specialties Continuing Certification Program's Improvement in Medical Practice Standard requires physicians to participate in practice improvement activities. Despite this universal requirement, there has been no assessment of this requirement or its potential impact on patient care. Because of its continuing certification oversight structure, the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is in a unique position to provide this assessment. Review of quality improvement projects submitted to the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation for continuing certification compliance revealed that most diplomates (70.1%) used available topic-specific options. These projects are designed to be directive and easy to use for physicians with limited quality improvement experience. Examples of topic-directed project potential impact on patient care include preventing wrong-site injections through implementing a preprocedure timeout or decreasing opioid prescribing risk through implementation of an opioid risk assessment tool. Thirty percent of submissions described improvement efforts in other areas of practice. These projects were directed toward areas of patient care including safety, communication/education, satisfaction, processes, and outcomes. This study demonstrates the efforts of physiatrists to improve care and the potential impact of these efforts on patient care and safety through participation in continuing certification., Competing Interests: Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article., (Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Physicians can lose board certification through revocation related to professionalism violations or expiration due to failure to complete continuing certification requirements. The purpose of this study was to analyze the causes of board certification loss for physicians with board certification through the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation., Design: This retrospective cohort study analyzed the certification status of 5541 American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation diplomates between 1993 and 2019 to determine reasons for certification loss. A focused analysis of diplomates with expired certificates in 2019 was conducted to further examine reasons for certificate expiration., Results: Of 5541 physicians, 496 (9%) had certification expiration due to failure to meet continuing certification requirements and 60 (1%) had certification revocation due to disciplinary actions, without regaining certification across the study years. A focused analysis of physicians with expired certificates in 2019 revealed that the majority had failed to complete multiple components of continuing certification. Practice improvement was the single most common incomplete requirement. Failure to pass the knowledge assessment was an uncommon cause for certification loss., Conclusions: Certification expiration through failure to complete all continuing certification requirements, versus revocation, is responsible for most instances of board certification loss. Practice improvement was the most common incomplete requirement., Competing Interests: Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article., (Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Abstract: There is limited literature examining the reasons physical medicine and rehabilitation residents take an extended leave of absence during residency and the impact of leave on board examination performance. Such information could better inform leave policies, help guide residency program directors, and potentially destigmatize taking leave. Study objectives were to describe the characteristics of physical medicine and rehabilitation residents who take leave during residency, compare differences in part I (written) and part II (oral) certification examination performance, and determine the prevalence of delays in taking board examinations. Study methodology was a retrospective analysis of deidentified information from the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation database between 2008 and 2020. Results indicated four reasons for extended leave of absence: medical, parental, academic/remediation, and unspecified personal reasons. Residents who took an extended leave of absence for medical or parental reasons had similar or better odds of passing their part I and part II examinations compared with those without leave. Residents who took leave for academic/remediation concerns or unspecified personal reasons had lower odds of passing their board examinations. Examination delays for those taking parental or personal health leaves did not affect board pass rates. Further investigation is needed to identify how to support residents on academic/remediation and unspecified leaves during training., Competing Interests: Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article., (Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Abstract: The American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation began administering the longitudinal assessment for physical medicine and rehabilitation for continuing certification in 2020. The longitudinal assessment for physical medicine and rehabilitation digitally delivers quarterly short assessments of content and repeats missed items to facilitate learning as well as serve as a summative certification assessment. With a goal of offering content relevant to an individual's practice and learning needs, diplomates choose how to customize the domains or topic areas of their question content on an annual basis. This report describes the first year of experience with customization of longitudinal assessment for physical medicine and rehabilitation. The American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation diplomate customization data are grouped and compared in a variety of ways to ascertain whether there are differences in customization choices. While customization choices were similar across several domains, significant differences were seen when comparing groups with specific areas of practice or subspecialty certification. Smaller differences were also seen when comparing question domain allocation choice between sexes, age groups, and practice setting. The results from this first full year of experience confirm an alignment of this innovative assessment approach to individual physician practice, a significant step in improving the relevance of continuing certification overall for participating physicians., Competing Interests: Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article., (Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The study analyzed the relationship between participation in the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation maintenance of certification program and the incidence of disciplinary actions by state medical boards over a physician's career. The hypothesis is that physicians who do not maintain their board certification have a higher likelihood of state medical board disciplinary actions., Design: This retrospective cohort study analyzed American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation maintenance of certification data from all board-certified physiatrists who were enrolled in the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation maintenance of certification program from 1993 to 2007., Results: Matching examination and license data were available for 4794 physicians, who received a total of 212 disciplinary action reports through the Federation of State Medical Boards. The results showed that physicians who have a lapse in completing the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation maintenance of certification program have a 2.5-fold higher incidence of receiving a disciplinary action report through the Federation of State Medical Boards (95% confidence interval = 1.76-3.63) and had higher severity violations (χ = 7.14, P < 0.05) than physicians whose certificate never lapsed., Conclusions: For physicians in physical medicine and rehabilitation, loss of board certification through failure to fulfill the maintenance of certification program requirements is associated with an increased risk of disciplinary action from a state medical licensing board.

Objective: Unconscious bias may result in a prejudicial evaluation of another person and lead to unfair treatment. Potential gender bias risk exists in the scoring process on the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation oral examination (Part II) because of the face-to-face interactions between candidates and examiners. This study was undertaken to determine whether performance on the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Part II examination differed based on candidate gender or configuration of examiner/candidate gender pairings. The impact of examiner unconscious bias training on candidate performance was also assessed., Design: This is a retrospective observational study of first-time Part II physical medicine and rehabilitation certification examination test takers between 2013 and 2018., Results: There were significant differences in pass rates (men 84%, women 89%) and mean scaled scores (men 6.56, women 6.81) between men and women (P < 0.001) with the biggest domain score differences in data acquisition and interpersonal and communication skills. Implementation of examiner unconscious bias training did not impact candidate performance., Conclusions: Women candidates scored higher and had a higher pass rate than men candidates overall on the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Part II examination. This difference does not seem to be due to scoring gender bias by the Part II examiners or due to candidate aptitude as measured on the Part I examination.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of intentional undersizing of prosthetic radial head implant diameters on joint contact pressures., Methods: Eight fresh-frozen cadaveric elbows were aligned in neutral extension and loaded with 100 N using a custom testing apparatus. Radiocapitellar contact pressures were recorded using a Tekscan thin-film pressure sensor. Prosthetic radial head replacement was performed with 2 prostheses: the Anatomic Radial Head and the Evolve Proline Radial Head prostheses. Each design was sized according to the manufacturer's recommendations and then again using 2-mm smaller radial heads., Results: Average and peak pressures were significantly higher with the Evolve than the Anatomic prostheses (P < 0.03 and 0.02, respectively). Peak pressures decreased from 4.2 ± 0.5 MPa to 2.9 ± 0.3 MPa for the Anatomic Radial Heads and from 5.6 ± 0.5 MPa to 3.9 ± 0.6 MPa when the Evolve Radial Heads were undersized by 2 mm. The mean pressures of the Anatomic Radial Heads (1.4 ± 0.1 MPa) did not change significantly with undersizing (1.3 ± 0.1 MPa, P = 0.12), whereas the mean pressures of the Evolve Radial Heads (1.6 ± 0.1 MPa) were significantly reduced with undersizing (1.4 ± 0.1 MPa, P < 0.02)., Conclusion: Both mean and peak pressures were initially high for the Evolve Radial Head sized based on the short axis diameter and were improved with further undersizing by 2 mm. Peak, but not mean, contact pressures were improved by undersizing the Anatomic prosthesis based on the long axis diameter., Clinical Relevance: These findings support the clinical recommendation of some surgeons to undersize the Evolve prosthesis by 2-mm smaller diameter than the current manufacturer's suggestion and give reason to consider doing the same for the Anatomic prosthesis.

Objectives: To describe the surgical treatment and patient outcomes of chronic elbow dislocations., Design: Retrospective review., Setting: Two tertiary referral centers., Patients/participants: All patients with surgically treated chronic elbow dislocation with no associated articular fracture from January 2009 to January 2015., Intervention: Review of patient demographics, injury chronicity, surgical technique, and patient outcomes., Main Outcome Measurement: Clinical outcomes included elbow range of motion and complications. Radiographic outcomes included the presence of heterotopic ossification. Patient-reported outcomes included the Mayo Elbow Performance Index (MEPI) and the Summary Outcome Determination (SOD)., Results: Thirty-two patients with mean follow-up of 22 months (range, 13-41 months) were included. The mean dislocation duration was 6 months (range, 1-34 months). The mean preoperative range of motion was 8 degrees (range, 0-30 degrees). There were no infections or recurrent dislocations. One patient developed transient ulnar nerve palsy postoperatively. There were no cases of new or progressive heterotopic ossification. The mean postoperative extension was 31 degrees (range, 0-75 degrees), and the mean postoperative flexion was 132 degrees (range, 95-150 degrees); the mean final arc of motion was 101 degrees (range, 50-140 degrees). The mean postoperative MEPI was 93 (range, 70-100), and the mean SOD score was 9 (range, 6-10). Using the MEPI, 97% (31/32 patients) had good or excellent outcome. There was no difference in flexion/extension arc or MEPI scores between groups of elbows older and younger than 17 years or dislocations less or more than 3 months., Conclusion: This is the largest case series of surgically treated patients with chronic elbow dislocation. Using our surgical technique, 97% of patients had good or excellent outcome with a low complication rate. Open reduction of chronic elbow dislocation can be accomplished while permitting early motion with minimal recurrent dislocation risk., Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine if wrestling is a safe, positive athletic option for limb-deficient individuals., Design: This descriptive study consisted of an opportunity sample of limb-deficient wrestlers, aged 5 yrs and older with at least 1 yr of experience. Participants completed a questionnaire regarding health, satisfaction, and achievements. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis., Results: Sixteen male wrestlers reported nine below-the-knee, five above-the-knee, and three below-the-elbow limb deficiencies. There were nine congenital deficiencies and seven amputations acquired during childhood. Two individuals won National Collegiate Athletic Association championships, and seven competed collegiately. All reported a positive impact on quality-of-life, 87% reported no difficulty finding acceptance with the team, and 50% experienced wrestling-related residual limb complications. Associations between (1) residual limb complications before and during wrestling and (2) skin breakdown before and during wrestling did not demonstrate statistical significance (P = 0.30 and 0.1189, respectively)., Conclusions: This study suggests that wrestling is a safe, positive sport for limb-deficient individuals, that it fosters competitive equality between impaired and nonimpaired participants, and that it has a positive impact on health and quality-of-life. The incidence of residual limb complications warrants monitoring.

This report describes 2 cases of a posteroinferior capitellum impaction osteochondral injury with associated avulsion of the supinator crest resulting from a fall onto an extended upper extremity. The injury pattern in both cases was detected on x-ray films, although fully appreciated on computed tomographic imaging. Posterolateral rotatory instability occurred in both patients. One patient underwent early operative intervention (4 days postinjury) and returned to normal within 5 weeks. Surgery was delayed for the second patient (13 weeks), who initially experienced unfavorable outcomes, although stability was ultimately restored operatively. To our knowledge, this injury pattern has not previously been described as the focus of a report.