The American Board of Obesity Medicine examination is designed to promote education surrounding the management and treatment of patients with obesity. It requires candidates to hold a valid medical license in the United States or Canada, obtain 60 hours of CME credits from validated sources, and take a licensure examination.
Note: For 2022, the ABOM is allowing virtual meetings (from approved sources) to count towards all credits- previously only 30 credits could be from non-conference attendance education.
The examination consists of 4 sixty-minute blocks, with each block containing 50 questions. Although the complete test content is located on the ABOM.org website, the test will include a number of topics including management options (pharmacologic and surgical), comorbidities, genetic predisposing conditions, and emerging therapies.
Coming from someone who took the boards in the past few years, it is not a test to walk into without appropriate preparation. I am internal medicine trained, and thus studying pediatric topics (especially genetic conditions), was vital. I can confidently say that primary care physicians could not pass this test without reviewing and studying appropriate content.
In saying that, I can also vouch that the required CME credits appropriately cover the material tested. A board review program that provides CME credits is a must, with a majority of test candidates (based on broad sampling) finding the Obesity Medicine Association and Harvard Blackburn courses being the two most high yield options.
Another important part of test preparation is practice questions. As we know with any previously taken board test, questions are where testable content is solidified and deficits are discovered. This is not a selfish plug for my book, but rather a recommendation to find high-yield questions that provide challenging clinical vignettes. The more questions you do, the better you will perform.
Finally, like all board examinations, oddities and rare findings are tested often. There are a number of topics that were added to the second edition of “Obesity Medicine Board Review” based on how important they are to boards, and how frequently they show up. If you come across a question in my book and wonder “Why is this included- this seems low yield?”, you may not say that after you take boards!
I wish you the best and want you to succeed. My desire is for more obesity-trained physicians to enter the workforce in order to combat this continually growing epidemic.
