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Exam Administration History

ABIM was established in 1936 with its first administration of the ABIM Internal Medicine Certification Examination. With the evolution of Internal Medicine's Subspecialties, ABIM has introduced Certification exams in the following areas. Note: all certificates issued after 1990 (Critical Care Medicine 1987 and Geriatric Medicine 1988) are time-limited with a duration of 10 years.

  • General Internal Medicine (1936)
  • Cardiovascular Disease, Gastroenterology and Pulmonary Disease (1941)
  • Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism; Hematology; Infectious Disease; Nephrology and Rheumatology (1972)
  • Medical Oncology (1973)
  • Critical Care Medicine (1987)
  • Geriatric Medicine (1988)
  • Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology (1992)
  • Sports Medicine (1993-2022)
  • Adolescent Medicine (1994)
  • Interventional Cardiology (1999)
  • Transplant Hepatology (2006)
  • Sleep Medicine (2007)
  • Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine (2008)
  • Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology (2010)
  • Adult Congenital Heart Disease (2015)
  • Neurocritical Care (2021)

The Focused Practice in Hospital Medicine (FPHM) MOC program is a variation of Internal Medicine certification. The first Hospital Medicine exam, which is a requirement of the FPHM program, was introduced in 2010.

All exams are currently administered on computer. They converted from paper-and-pencil during the following administrations:

  • Internal Medicine Maintenance of Certification (Fall 2004)
  • Subspecialty Maintenance of Certification (Spring 2005)
  • Subspecialty Certification (Fall 2005)
  • Internal Medicine Certification (Summer 2006)