ABEM Certifying Exam Case Development: A Roadmap for Innovation

The American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) is launching the Certifying Exam (CE) in 2026, following a multi-year process to redesign the initial certification process. The CE is the future of initial certification assessment in emergency medicine, assessing the skills, behaviors, and clinical decision-making needed by working emergency physicians. The assessment will contain structured interviews, procedural simulation and ultrasound, and a new type of case designed to evaluate key components of physician communication such as: managing conflict, having difficult conversations, and having patient-centered communications.

Creating the CE requires an innovative approach to case development, both in process and content. ABEM recruited over sixty volunteers to participate in development, which includes partnerships with non-physician team members. In addition, ABEM collaborates with standardized patient actors to help create realistic cases that can be standardized across administrations.

ABEM will present their process of creating a large-scale case development program of novel case types, how they engage non-physician team members (standardized patients and public members), and share lessons learned around ongoing management and sustainability.