Help NBPAS Expand Recognition in Residency Education
ACGME is accepting comments on proposed requirements for physicians who teach and lead residency programs. Please ask ACGME to recognize qualified physicians who maintain board certification through NBPAS.
Read our press release for more on NBPAS’s position: Read the full press release.
➜ Submit your comments by October 22, 2026.
How to comment:
- Visit the ACGME Review and Comment website.
- Find Common Program Requirements (Residency) and click “Review and Comment Form.”
- Follow the prompts to create an account and answer the introductory questions.
- Find sections 2.12, 2.24, and 2.24(a). For each, select “Do Not Support” and “I Wish to Include a Comment.”
- Copy the suggested comment below into each section, or write your own. Each comment box allows up to 1,600 characters.
Suggested comment for all three sections:
I urge ACGME to recognize qualified program directors and physician faculty who earned initial ABMS/AOA board certification and maintain continuing certification through NBPAS.
Requiring “current” ABMS/AOA certification will make participation in those boards’ maintenance programs a condition of teaching or leading a residency program. ACGME should explain what evidence supports this restriction and why alternative continuing-certification pathways are not explicitly recognized.
Qualifications should reflect specialty training, initial board certification, ongoing specialty-specific education, demonstrated clinical competence, teaching and professional accomplishments, and unrestricted licensure.
ACGME should explicitly recognize NBPAS in its requirements and establish clear approval criteria that include physicians who choose this pathway. Qualified physicians should be able to continue teaching and leading residency programs while maintaining certification through NBPAS.