The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) and the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (ABPMR) have joined the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) in offering certification in pain management as an interdisciplinary subspecialty.

The three boards have agreed on a single standard of certification that includes, among other requirements, passing a computerized certification examination administered nationally at Sylvan Technology Centers. This will be the ABPN’s first venture into computerized testing.

As part of the interdisciplinary approach to this certification program, the ABPN has appointed a psychiatrist and a neurologist, and the ABPMR has appointed a physiatrist, to serve on the ABA’s pain management examination committee. Psychiatrist Rollin Gallagher, M.D., M.P.H., neurologist Kenneth Casey, M.D., and physiatrist Nicholas Walsh, M.D., participate on the ABA committee that develops the examination.

Gallagher is a professor of psychiatry, professor of anesthesiology, and director of pain medicine at MCP/Hahnemann University and clinical director of the Comprehensive Pain Medicine and Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia. In addition to serving the ABPN as a Part II examiner for many years, Gallagher serves on the Board of Directors and chairs the Scientific Advisory Committee of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. Casey is chief of the neurology service at Ann Arbor VA Medical Center in Michigan.

Diplomates from ABPN, as well as diplomates from member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) other than diplomates from the ABA and the ABPMR, who have had appropriate training and/or experience in the area of pain management may apply to the ABPN for admission to the certifying process. Diplomates of the ABA and the ABPMR are required to apply for certification through their respective boards.

A diplomate seeking ABPN certification in the interdisciplinary subspecialty of pain management must (1) be a graduate of an accredited medical school in the United States or Canada, or of an international medical school listed by the World Health Organization; (2) be certified and maintain certification in a primary specialty of the ABPN or another ABMS member board other than the ABA or the ABPMR; (3) submit a letter from his/her respective ABMS member board granting permission to sit for the pain management examination, if the diplomate’s primary certification is with a board other than the ABPN; (4) possess an active, valid, unrestricted license to practice medicine in the U.S. or Canada; (5) fulfill the requirements of the Continuum of Education for Pain Management; and (6) successfully pass the Examination for Interdisciplinary Certification in the Subspecialty of Pain Management.

The Continuum of Education in Pain Management can be fulfilled either by completing one year of ACGME-approved residency training in pain management or, for the first five years only, by satisfying the following temporary criteria:

Satisfactory completion of residency training for general certification by an ABMS member board prior to September 1, 2000, and one of the following:

• Completion of one year of formal training in pain management; or

• Completion of 24 months (full-time equivalent) practice in pain management. Credit will be granted only for pain management practice that took place during the eight years immediately preceding the deadline for receipt of application to take the examination; or

• Exceptions to the above two temporary requirements that could be considered equivalent combinations of training and practice. These will be considered on an individual basis.

After 2003 all candidates applying or reapplying for examination in pain management must complete one year of ACGME-approved training in pain management.