Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment after One Year

On January 4, 2019, the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) launched the Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment (FMCLA) pilot as an alternative to the 1-day Family Medicine Certification examination. Although FMCLA is intended as a “summative” assessment (ie, evaluating whether a candidate has the cognitive expertise necessary to be a board-certified family physician), a major reason we developed this alternative was to provide an experience that was also formative—one that helps family physicians identify gaps in their own knowledge and supports learning.1,2 In the pilot, physicians eligible for selecting FMCLA are those who are in their 10th year of their certification cycle and are due to take the examination. Over time, we expect that everyone will have the opportunity to “roll into” this option coinciding with their examination year.