Health Articles
Board Certification / Recertification

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Board Certification/Recertification - Some doctors who enter a specialty area of medicine become board certified. Certification is a system that ensures that the doctor has been tested to assess his or her knowledge, skills, and experience in a specialty and is deemed qualified to provide quality patient care in that specialty. There are two levels of certification through 24 specialty medical boards - doctors can be certified in 37 general medical specialties and, with additional training, be certified in an additional 77 subspecialty fields. Most certificates expire and need to be renewed after seven to 10 years depending on the specialty.

Continuing Medical Education (CME) - Learning does not end when doctors complete their residency training. Doctors may continue to receive credits for continuing education, and some states require a certain number of CME credits per year to ensure the doctor's knowledge and skills remain current. CME requirements vary by state, by professional organizations, and by hospital medical staff organizations.

International Medical Graduates (IMG):
IMGs are doctors who received their medical education at medical schools outside the United States and are being trained in or have graduated from residency programs in the United States. This diverse group of doctors are not just foreign-born physicians but also U.S. citizens who chose to get their medical education abroad. Approximately 24 percent of all licensed U.S. physicians are IMGs.