Diplomate Spotlight Opening Doors with Board Certification: A Conversation with Long Standing Diplomate Joseph Cook Read Opening Doors with Board Certification: A Conversation with Long Standing Diplomate Joseph Cook
Phoenix Newsletter - July 2025 Available Now: 2026 5-Year Cycle Registration Read Available Now: 2026 5-Year Cycle Registration
Home Research Research Library Racial/Ethnic Representation Among American Board of Family Medicine Certification Candidates from 1970 to 2020 Racial/Ethnic Representation Among American Board of Family Medicine Certification Candidates from 1970 to 2020 2022 Author(s) Wang, Ting, O’Neill, Thomas R, Newton, Warren P, Hall, Kennedi, and Eden, Aimee R Topic(s) Family Medicine Certification, and Achieving Health System Goals Volume Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine Source Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine BACKGROUND: Because improved patient outcomes and experiences have been associated with health care workforce diversity, efforts to create a diverse family physician workforce have increased. However, a metric that could properly measure family physician representation in various contexts has seldom been studied. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to propose a new metric logRQ and use it to examine the diversification progress of American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) certification candidates relative to national, state, and historic populations, as well as medical school matriculants. METHODS: We obtained race/ethnicity for certification candidates from the 2014 to 2020 ABFM Certification Examination Registration questionnaire and examined racial/ethnic representation relative to various populations via logRQs. RESULTS: The total sample comprised 26,368 initial certification candidates and 55,347 continuing certification candidates. Asian, Hispanic, and Black’s logRQ increased by 0.51, 0.42, and 0.41, respectively, in initial certification candidates compared with continuing certification candidates. In addition, logRQ standard deviation ranged from 0.19 to 0.87 across States, indicating state-level variation. Although Black and Hispanic remained underrepresented, the degree of underrepresentation had improved substantially across the past 5 decades, with logRQ increasing from -2.12 (Black) and -1.16 (Hispanic) in the 1970s to -0.46 (Black) and -0.68 (Hispanic) in the 2010s. The race/ethnicity logRQs of 2020 initial certification candidates relative to 2013 to 2014 medical school matriculants were all near 0, reflecting equitable representation. CONCLUSION: We utilized the proposed metric logRQ to quantify the advancement in representation among ABFM certification candidates in different contexts. The proposed logRQ may serve as a useful tool to monitor representation progress systematically. ABFM Research Read all 2022 Multinational primary health care experiences from the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis Go to Multinational primary health care experiences from the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis 2015 A Family Medicine Health Technology Strategy for Achieving the Triple Aim for US Health Care Go to A Family Medicine Health Technology Strategy for Achieving the Triple Aim for US Health Care 2013 Specialty board certification in the United States: issues and evidence Go to Specialty board certification in the United States: issues and evidence 2025 Factors Associated with Documenting Social Determinants of Health in Electronic Health Records Go to Factors Associated with Documenting Social Determinants of Health in Electronic Health Records
Author(s) Wang, Ting, O’Neill, Thomas R, Newton, Warren P, Hall, Kennedi, and Eden, Aimee R Topic(s) Family Medicine Certification, and Achieving Health System Goals Volume Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine Source Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
ABFM Research Read all 2022 Multinational primary health care experiences from the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis Go to Multinational primary health care experiences from the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis 2015 A Family Medicine Health Technology Strategy for Achieving the Triple Aim for US Health Care Go to A Family Medicine Health Technology Strategy for Achieving the Triple Aim for US Health Care 2013 Specialty board certification in the United States: issues and evidence Go to Specialty board certification in the United States: issues and evidence 2025 Factors Associated with Documenting Social Determinants of Health in Electronic Health Records Go to Factors Associated with Documenting Social Determinants of Health in Electronic Health Records
2022 Multinational primary health care experiences from the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis Go to Multinational primary health care experiences from the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis
2015 A Family Medicine Health Technology Strategy for Achieving the Triple Aim for US Health Care Go to A Family Medicine Health Technology Strategy for Achieving the Triple Aim for US Health Care
2013 Specialty board certification in the United States: issues and evidence Go to Specialty board certification in the United States: issues and evidence
2025 Factors Associated with Documenting Social Determinants of Health in Electronic Health Records Go to Factors Associated with Documenting Social Determinants of Health in Electronic Health Records