Improved Performance on Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment in Continuing Certification: The ABPath CertLink Strategy.

Abstract

Context.—: All member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties have continuing certification (ie, maintenance of certification) programs. The efficacy of these programs has been questioned and, therefore, warrants study.

Objective.—: To determine if the American Board of Pathology CertLink program, as structured, is associated with an improvement in the performance of participants on the assessment of content that was previously missed (ie, inaccurately answered).

Design.—: We reviewed the performance of American Board of Pathology CertLink participants from January 2022 through December 2023 on the readministration of the content from 110 036 multiple-choice items that were previously missed by the participants in a program with enhanced learning strategies and incentives.

Results.—: The correct response rate upon the assessment of readministered content that was previously missed increased from 0% to 62.2% (68 394 of 110 036), which exceeds that which would be achieved by guessing (P < .001).

Conclusions.—: The American Board of Pathology CertLink program, which incentivizes learning and was constructed from adult learning principles and modern educational precepts to improve knowledge retention, interrupt forgetting, and introduce practice-relevant content, is associated with an improvement in the performance of diplomates on continuing certification knowledge assessments.