If you are an emergency medicine physician, Board Certified by AOBEM, however you were denied an EMS medical director position due to an inability to sit for the EMS-CAQ exam, please contact Dr. Joe Beirne, ACOEP President-Elect, immediately at beirnegj@gmail.com. The deadline to reply is November 13, 2020.

ACOEP and the EMS Committee have filed a request to the AOA-Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists (BOS) to allow physicians in this situation to sit for the EMS Certificate of Added Qualification exam (EMS-CAQ). When the appeal was reviewed and subsequently denied, ACOEP filed an appeal to the AOA Committee of Special Appeals, which is now under consideration. This committee has asked for ACOEP to provide them with the information as to why this unique group of physicians was denied the opportunity to sit for the ABEM EMS fellowship qualification under the practice track, as well as the names of all ACOEP members who are board certified in EM, completed an AOA-approved residency, and are affected by this unfortunate situation.

In 2012, ABEM announced it would recognize EMS as a subspecialty of emergency medicine and created a five-year window for EM board-certified physicians (ABEM or AOBEM), who are EMS medical directors, to be certified in EMS via a practice track option. The window opened after the first EMS Subspecialty exam administered in 2014 and it closed July 1, 2019. AOBEM’s EMS-CAQ closed in 2003, before most physicians involved in the appeal were board certified. There are no osteopathic EMS fellowships available currently.

Many AOBEM-boarded EMS medical directors contacted ABEM to take the exam, however they were denied the opportunity to sit because they had not completed an ACGME-approved residency, a requirement not delineated on the ABEM website.
ACOEP’s appeal requests that those physicians who are EMS medical directors, qualified to sit for the exam, and are members in good standing with the AOA, be allowed to sit for the EMS-CAQ examination as a unique solution to this situation.
This appeal represents physicians who have remained loyal to the AOA, chose to do an AOA-approved residency in EM, were board-certified by AOBEM, and are now losing medical director positions in EMS because they did not complete an ACGME-EM residency. Further, many of these positions are being taken by physicians who have little EMS experience, and do not possess the depth of experience that the physicians who are filing the appeal have. This truly has caused a situation where these physicians have become disenfranchised. During this time of COVID-19, the public deserves to have the experience of qualified osteopathic EMS medical directors who have years of experience and knowledge in this field. Without this appeal, the health and safety of the public will be at risk.

We ask for your participation in order to strengthen our collective voice in supporting one another and these hard working, qualified physicians.

Sincerely,
Robert E. Suter, DO, MHA, FACOEP-D ACOEP
President

Gregory J. Beirne, DO, FACOEP-D
ACOEP President-Elect