Performance of Candidates Selecting the Subspecialty of Spine Surgery for the Part II American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Oral Certification Examination

Abstract

The American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) was founded in 1934 to establish standards for the certification of orthopaedic surgeons and educational requirements for postgraduate training in orthopaedic surgery. Educational standards have been well established for residency training, with specific requirements spelled out to successfully complete the five-year accredited orthopaedic residency program. These requirements are clearly noted on the ABOS web site1. Over the past fifteen years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of postgraduate fellowship programs encompassing the multiple subspecialties of orthopaedic surgery. At present, >90% of graduates take a postgraduate fellowship upon completion of their residency training according to ABOS internal documentation obtained from application material. Fellowships in the subspecialties of orthopaedic surgery accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) are available in the Graduate Medical Education Directory published by the American Medical Association2. There is a wide disparity in the number of accredited or non-accredited fellowships depending on the subspecialty selected. For instance, surgery of the hand and sports medicine have almost 100% of their fellowships accredited by the ACGME with stringent educational, training, and faculty requirements overseen by the Residency Review Committee for Orthopaedic Surgery. Other subspecialties have far fewer accredited programs. These include spine surgery, which has eighteen accredited fellowships of approximately seventy-five available programs. Presently, the ABOS has not mandated educational and training requirements for fellowships as it has previously for resident training. The ABOS recognizes that postgraduate fellowship training has become an accepted path following completion of residency. The board is also aware that non-accredited fellowships are not subject to the same educational and training requirement reviews that accredited fellowships undergo on a regular basis. From 2006 to 2010, there were 359 candidates who sat for the ABOS Part II oral examination as …