The National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) has announced the date for the 2023 Advanced Competence in Medical Optometry (ACMO) Exam – it will be administered at over 220 U.S. Pearson VUE Professional Centers on Thursday, June 22, 2023.

• ACMO Exam – Overview, Fees and Tutorials
• ACMO Exam – Registration Dates (PDF)
• Pearson Vue – Test Center Information

Important Notes

The exam is administered only once per year.

Exam registration opens October 26, 2022.

Register prior to June 9, 2023 to avoid the $400 late registration fee.

There is a significant discount ($300) for those taking the exam in their Residency Year.

Since the availability of seats at some test centers may be limited, candidates are encouraged to register as soon as possible to reduce the likelihood of having to travel a long distance to the next available test center.

Register for Exam

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Welcome New Specialists in Medical Optometry!

First and foremost, the Board would like to welcome all those O.D.s newly certified in the Specialty of Medical Optometry: Robert Binkley, Mackenzie Black, Patrick Clark, Michelle D’Amura, Dean Fasciani, Caryn Herman, William Hileman, Carrie Ho, Gayle LePosa, Rachael Miller, Elizabeth Phillips, Ashley Rone, David Sarah, Jennifer Sutter and Leslie Wilderson.

If you happen to work with any of these people please introduce yourself and congratulate them on their certification – you know exactly how much work they’ve done to accomplish this.

A Letter to VA Optometry Residency Coordinators: The Benefits of the ACMO Exam

This editorial first appeared in Optimum VA, The Official Newsletter of the National Association of VA Optometrists, January/February 2022. In addition to outlining several benefits of taking the ACMO exam during Residency, this editorial also mentions a major change in 2019 to VA Handbook 5017 and the SAA system.

The Benefits of the ACMO Exam

What is Medical Optometry?

In this editorial Dr. Kenneth Myers, President of ABCMO, discusses the Specialty of Medical Optometry and the historic “split” between retail and clinical health care that can be seen in multiple professions.

What is Medical Optometry?

Verification of Certification (VOC) – What ABCMO Reports

When ABCMO receives a VOC request (usually from a Joint Commission accredited health care facility credentialing committee) it reports one of the following status categories for the O.D. in question: Active, Probation, Retired, Revoked, or Never Certified. More information about these categories can be found on the VOC webpage.

Verification of Certification

Maintenance of Certification (MOC) – What You Need to Know

Effective January 1, 2023 ABCMO will begin reporting O.D.s Certified by ABCMO but not enrolled in MOC as having Status: Probation when asked by credentialing committees and employers. Until then, ABCMO will continue to report Status: Active (followed by an email reminder to the O.D. to enroll in MOC as soon as possible).

Starting in July 2022, and continuing through the end of the year, ABCMO will begin reaching out to each and every Diplomate about their MOC status and if necessary making adjustments to renewal dates for those already enrolled in MOC. This is so that no O.D. falls into the Probation or Revoked category by accident in 2023.

Maintenance of Certification

ACMO Exam Scheduled for Friday, June 10, 2022

While the odds are very high that if you are reading this you have already taken the exam yourself, the odds are equally high you are working with someone who hasn’t. Please share this if any of your colleagues ask about your experience with ABCMO and attaining Certification.

ACMO Exam Scheduled for June 10, 2022

Peer-Reviewed Journal Under Study

ABCMO is currently investigating the feasibility of launching an online, peer-reviewed journal. If you would be interested in submitting work (articles, editorials, interest pieces) or working on the Editorial or Peer-Review teams please use the link below to let us know.

Let us know what interests you!

ABCMO offers Board Certification in the Specialty of Medical Optometry which “encompasses the medical diagnosis, management and treatment of primary and secondary diseases and disorders of the human eye, adnexa and visual tracts.”

ABCMO is recognized at Joint Commission accredited medical facilities as issuing board certification in the Specialty of Medical Optometry. Those certified by ABCMO are eligible for credentialing at these facilities as specialists rather than general practice optometrists.

To apply for Specialty Certification in Medical Optometry an OD must:

1. Complete a full-time, ACOE (or equivalent) accredited, postgraduate clinical residency training program having its major emphasis on medical optometry at a health care facility accredited by The Joint Commission, such as a VA medical center.
2. Pass the Advanced Competence in Medical Optometry (ACMO) exam. This exam is significantly discounted for current Residents.
3. Meet additional requirements as outlined on the Certification Application.

For more information about specialty certifications at your medical facility, please talk with the residency supervisor where you are training.

You may send any application questions to info@abcmo.org

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About ABCMO

The American Board of Certification in Medical Optometry (ABCMO) is recognized at Joint Commission accredited medical facilities as issuing board certification in the Specialty of Medical Optometry. Those certified by ABCMO are eligible for credentialing at these facilities as specialists rather than general optometry practitioners.

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About The Joint Commission

The Joint Commission is the recognized agency that accredits federal, state, and local-chartered medical facilities. Over 127 Joint Commission accredited hospitals, clinics and teaching institutions now credential ABCMO Board Certified Optometrists as Specialists in Medical Optometry.

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ABCMO – Fall 2021 Updates

Greetings!

1) First and foremost, the Board would like to welcome all those newly certified in the Specialty of Medical Optometry: Stephanie Carter, Scott DePoe, Adam Fannin, Lisa Himmelein, Meaghan Horton, William Kress, Kathy Lewis, Ethan Leyda, Michael Meyer, Hannah Sipola, Danielle Taylor, and Betty Wang.

If you work with any of these people please greet them with the secret ABCMO handshake (we’re just kidding, there is no handshake, but please say hello).

2) ABCMO would like to introduce Douglas Rett, O.D., FAAO as the newest member of our Board. Doug is the Chief of Optometry for VA Boston, and a clinical faculty member at four different optometry schools.

Full bio here -> https://abcmo.org/board-of-directors/douglas-rett/

3) The Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Program is in full operation and all ABCMO certified ODs are expected to sign up and submit all required information when renewing their state license to practice.

Program Info -> https://abcmo.org/maintenance-of-certification/
Bylaws, Article 19 -> https://abcmo.org/bylaws/#article-19

Quite simply, ABCMO has dropped the requirement that you re-take the NBEO ACMO exam every 10 years and replaced that with the requirement that you fill all remaining/extra State Required CE Credit hours with courses in Medical Optometry. This information along with a Self-Query of the National Practitioners Databank can then be submitted online every year or every other year (depending on your state license renewal cycle).

Enrollment in the MOC Program is a requirement for continued certification and Verification of Certification (VOC)

4) If you are curious about the early days of the Department of Veterans Affairs Optometry Service or would like to see a picture of our President, Dr. Kenneth Myers, the first Director of VA Optometry Service, please click the link below.

VA Optometry – Summer of 1980

As a profession, Optometry is constantly evolving. We commend all of you certified in the Specialty of Medical Optometry for being part of this evolution and for helping lead our profession forward.

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ABCMO – The Next 10 Years

Important Changes for 2021 and Beyond

In the last ten years the number of optometrists certified by ABCMO has grown steadily from just a few dozen to over 450 as of today. This has been very exciting and we want to thank all of you for helping us build an organization that represents the best, most highly trained specialists in Medical Optometry.

As we look forward to the next ten years the Board has decided to make several important changes. These changes are designed to keep the value of your ABCMO Certification as high as possible while responding to trends in both Optometry and Medicine.

1. The requirement of re-passage of the NBEO’s ACMO examination every 10 years for maintenance of certification has been discontinued. Instead, all certificate holders, regardless of the year of original certificate issuance, will be required to enroll in the following program:

2. The ABCMO Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program will require participants to fill all state required Continuing Education (CE) hours, not otherwise specified or required by their state, with COPE accredited hours in subjects relevant to medical optometry. The fee is $45/year (or $90 for biennial state renewals). Enrollment begins in January 2021 or January 2022 depending on your state license renewal date. Additional requirements along with an online signup form can be found below.

https://abcmo.org/maintenance-of-certification/

3. Verification of Certification (VOC), requested by credentialing offices can now be done online too. In order to prevent delays in verifying your certification with ABCMO make sure you sign up for the Maintenance of Certification program listed above and provide all the required information.

https://abcmo.org/verification-of-certification/

We expect the changes outlined above, in combination, best prepare us all for the next 10 years.

The following is a review of factors leading to enhanced programs to ensure Maintenance of Certification (MOC) of physician specialists. ABCMO specific requirements can be found in Article 19 of the ABCMO Bylaws.

Section 19.1: Background theory and general information

In 1999 some medical specialist boards still issued lifetime board certifications, while others required continuing education or training to renew the time-limited board certifications they issued. Medical specialist certifications are only earned after completing medical school and being issued an initial state license to practice medicine and they require residency training and passage of specialist examinations administered by specialist certifying boards.

Medical specialists had developed (the American Board of Ophthalmology was first, in 1930) prior to WWII and were supported by hospital organizations as medicine developed specialized, complex treatments necessarily best performed within hospitals. And because these procedures carried more risks, hospitals began to favor, and some to require, that medical specialists be board certified to join their medical staff. There are 24 recognized specialties in medicine governed by the American Board of Medical Specialists. Dentistry, podiatry and optometry only later developed specialties and certifying boards for them that, like medical specialties, require postgraduate clinical residency training and passage of specialty examinations.

The development of these specialties arose independently at the clinical level, begun by medical practitioners who sought to learn more about a particular aspect of medicine and traveled to spend time working with a known expert as a “resident”. They rapidly grew in numbers after WWII when returning veterans used GI benefits to seek additional training. By 1980 medical specialization had become the norm and today about 90% of medical school graduates become specialists by serving specialty residencies and most hospital higher risk procedures are performed or diagnosed by medical specialists.

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the National Academies, completed a study designed to recommend changes in American hospital care. The IOM study was one of many reactions to previous estimates that as many as 98,000 hospital patients died each year from medical errors. The estimates created such interest they raised the question whether lifelong specialty certifications should end and more rigorous standards be established for renewals of specialty certifications.

The IOM Committee on Quality of Health Care in American completed its study and published its recommendations in the book “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System”.

Among the IOM recommendations were these^

Health professional licensing bodies should:

1. Implement periodic re-examinations and re-licensing of doctors, nurses, and other key providers, based upon both competence and knowledge of safety practices; and
2. Work with certifying and credentialing organizations to develop more effective methods to identify unsafe providers and take action.

At about this time other similar studies were issued which also led to questioning the wisdom of issuing lifetime specialty board certifications.

Those studies produced a generally accepted consensus that medical specialty boards should:#,*

1. Issue initial board certifications not for life but carry expiration dates.
2. Renewal of expired board certifications should require evidence the specialist has undertaken steps to maintain their initial competence and keep pace with diagnostic and treatment developments.

References

To Err is Human: building a safer health system, Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine, The National Academies, June 2000, National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20418. ISBN 0-309-06837-1. Full text available at www.nap.edu/readingroom. Report can be purchased at The National Academies Press.

^ It is important to note these recommendations were directed at board certified medical (allopathic and osteopathic) specialists holding hospital privileges and treating hospitalized patients since the reported deaths occurred within hospitals. The IOM made no recommendations for medical practitioners, whether board certified or not, treating patients within their private offices.

# No study or recommendations were made regarding dentists, optometrists and podiatrists although each profession has certifying boards for residency trained specialists. ABCMO is the only board certified optometry specialty at this time.

* Some optometry opinion makers believed the IOM study, insurance plans or Medicare regulations would soon require general practice optometrists become “board certified”. This created a “hot debate” within optometry, much angst and confusion, and led to formation of the American Board of Optometry that offers board certification to general practice optometrists as does a similar one for general practice dentists. About 4% and less than 1% respectively of general practice optometrists and dentistry hold these board certifications that are essentially additional CE in general practice.

The Board believes it vital to have independent, external advice and counsel of the highest quality and is pleased to announce Charles F. Mullen, O.D., has accepted the Board’s invitation to serve as Special Advisor.

Dr. Mullen brings an exceptional record of experience and leadership relevant to the ABCMO mission from having long been intimately involved in the integration of optometry into health care systems and building interdisciplinary delivery of eye care as demonstrated by his CV (PDF).

A graduate of the University of Virginia who served as an officer in the US Navy prior to entering the Massachusetts College of Optometry, his leadership qualities were so apparent he served as Special Assistant to the President for Clinical Development after graduation. During six years Dr. Mullen transformed the school’s clinical system by establishing interdisciplinary eye clinics at health clinics in the greater Boston area and reaching out to medical institutions.

He was recruited to be founding Executive Director of the Eye Institute in Philadelphia, the then new patient care and clinical education facility of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry from 1976 to 1990 and worked to integrate optometry within regional health systems and develop productive programs with medicine and ophthalmology.

In 1990 Dr. Mullen was recommended to, and selected by, the US Department of Veterans Affairs for appointment as Washington Director of its national Optometry Service, the largest optometry patient care and clinical teaching program in the country. In this position he was the highest ranking optometrist in federal service and worked with members of the US Congress and Executive Branch as well as leaders of medical education across the nation and was responsible for a staff of 260 optometrists at 159 medical facilities with 75 residents and 590 optometry students rotating per year.

In 1996 he was named President of the Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago where he led a transformation in its administrative and clinical programs, put the College’s financials on a sound base, created an affiliation with the University of Chicago and expanded student training sites from 9 to 144 sites while improving student retention to 99% before retiring in 2002.

Currently Dr. Mullen is co-founder and President of the American Board of Optometry Specialties that assists in the establishment of residency-based training programs in optometry specialties and their subsequent specialty and subspecialty certifications.

The Board believes Dr. Mullen’s experience will be invaluable to ABCMO and looks forward to working with him in the future.

Introduction

Until 1974 the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) lagged behind the Department of Defense in providing optometry care to its beneficiaries. But Congressional legislation, critical external reviews and the findings of a General Accounting Office investigation then set the stage for the development of a national DVA Optometry Service that now treats over one million unique patients per year utilizing some 700 optometry medical staff members while pioneering and now operating 81 optometry resident programs training 220 optometry residents each year in medical optometry, the only optometry specialty requiring postgraduate residency specialty training and passage of a national specialty examination that leads to national board certification in medical optometry.

The following article from the web-based textbook Optometric Care within the Public Health Community published in 2010 describes how those reforms in DVA optometry care mirrored those reforms used to achieve other signal improvements in DVA medical care.

Public Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs (This is the full article)

Development of Medical Optometry Within the VA (Pages 1-5 and 16-28 from above)

The author (Kenneth J. Myers, Ph.D., O.D.) served as founding director (emeritus) of the DVA optometry service, 1974-1989 and is founding director of the American Board of Certification in Medical Optometry.