• Catherine A Marco, Robert P Wahl, James D Thomas, Ramon W Johnson, O John Ma, Anne L Harvey, and Earl J Reisdorff.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, United States of America. Electronic address: catherine.marco@wright.edu.
• Am J Emerg Med. 2019 May 1; 37 (5): 859-863.

ObjectiveThe ABEM ConCert Examination is a summative examination that ABEM-certified physicians are required to pass once in every 10-year cycle to maintain certification. This study was undertaken to identify practice settings of emergency physicians, and to determine if there was a difference in performance on the 2017 ConCert between physicians of differing practice types and settings.MethodsThis was a mixed methods cross sectional-study, using a post-examination survey and test performance data. All physicians taking the 2017 ConCert Examination who completed three survey questions pertaining to practice type, practice locations, and teaching were included. These three questions address different aspects of academia: self-identification, an academic setting, and whether the physician teaches.ResultsAmong 2796 test administrations of the 2017 ConCert Examination, 2693 (96.3%) completed the three survey questions about practice environment. The majority (N = 2054; 76.3%) self-identified as primarily being a community physician, 528 (19.6%) as academic, and 111 (4.1%) as other. The average ConCert Examination score for community physicians was 83.5 (95% CI, 83.3-83.8); the academic group was 84.8 (95% CI, 84.3-85.3); and the other group was 82.3 (95% CI, 81.1-83.6). After controlling for initial ability as measured by the Qualifying Examination score, there was no significant difference in performance between academic and community physicians (p = .10).ConclusionsAcademic emergency physicians and community emergency physicians scored similarly on the ConCert. Working at a community teaching hospital was associated with higher examination performance. Teaching medical learners, especially non-emergency medicine residents, was also associated with better examination performance.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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