Boards sponsor certification in end-of-life care

Some medical boards are also exploring certification in sleep medicine and hospital medicine.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Jan. 22, 2007.

Family physicians, internists and doctors in eight other specialties can be board certified in hospice and palliative medicine starting in 2008.

Medical leaders said the subspecialty certificate would ensure that more doctors provide quality care to patients with chronic progressive diseases and those near the end of life.

"This is an area that is very important to all of the specialties involved," said Stephen H. Miller, MD, MPH, president and CEO of the American Board of Medical Specialties.

This is the first time 10 ABMS member boards have collaborated to offer certification in one area, according to board leaders. Co-sponsoring the new certification are certifying boards in family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, anesthesiology, psychiatry and neurology, radiology and surgery.

"Each of the co-sponsoring boards recognizes the growing importance of this area of medicine," said James C. Puffer, MD, president and CEO of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Hospice and palliative medicine groups asked several boards to consider developing the subspecialty certification. The ABMS approved the certification in September 2006. The new certificate will be offered to physicians who hold specialty or subspecialty certification by one of the 10 sponsoring boards, the ABMS said.

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine said it was pleased that hospice and palliative care would be recognized as an ABMS subspecialty.