About ABFM

A Higher Standard

Family Medicine Board Certification

As the trusted authority in board certification, the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) offers primary board certification in family medicine and Added Qualifications in Adolescent Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Pain Medicine, Sleep Medicine, and Sports Medicine.

We place the patient’s interest first by assessing family physicians against the highest standards of knowledge, professionalism, and ethics to support delivery of safe and high-quality care. In addition to maintaining these standards, physicians are accountable to a lifetime commitment of learning and professional development. ABFM Board Certification is different from medical licensing boards, which set the requirements that all physicians must meet in order to obtain and renew licenses to practice in their state.

With more than 50 years of experience, ABFM currently has over 100,000 board-certified family physicians. ABFM is the third largest of the 24 specialty boards that make up the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), with whom we work to establish common standards. With a shared responsibility to the health of the public, ABFM also collaborates with educators to identify high priority needs through assessments and other family medicine organizations to preserve the right to professional self-regulation in the specialty of family medicine.

With an unwavering commitment to a trusted certification process that is fair, reliable, accurate, and objective, we work daily to deliver on our promise to both the patient and the physician.

Patient Promise

ABFM promises patients that the ABFM board-certified family physician they choose is held to the highest standard of knowledge, skills, and ethics to support the delivery of safe and high-quality care.

Physician Promise

ABFM promises physicians that the ABFM certificate they earn signifies their deep commitment to patients, their practice, and the profession. It is a meaningful measure of their professionalism, cognitive expertise, and commitment to improvement. By maintaining board certification, physicians help fulfill their responsibilities to society.

Mission

To safeguard the public through rigorous standards for residency education, initial and continuing board certification, support for improvement of health and health care, and research about family physicians and their practices. To accomplish this goal:

• We certify family physicians who have a commitment to professionalism, lifelong learning and self-assessment, cognitive expertise, and a dedication to improving the care they provide.
• We partner with Diplomates throughout their careers, across all communities and capacities they serve.
• We collaborate with organizations, specialties, and other partners who share our commitment to a higher standard than licensure, and to the improvement in health care and the health of the public.
• We set rigorous standards for ABFM Board Eligibility, support excellence and ongoing innovation in residency education, and promote continuous professional development.
• We advance professionalism in family medicine.
• We conduct research that advances the science of certification, monitors how family physicians’ practices evolve over time, improves the clinical and policy environment that family physicians practice in, and advances the scientific basis of family medicine.
• We support the development of future leaders for the specialty, the profession, and health care.