ABAI announces New Blueprint
11/9/2021
ABAI’s new certification exam blueprint represents the culmination of two years of work by our very dedicated Blueprint Committee.
ABAI periodically reviews its blueprints to ensure that exam content is fully aligned with clinical practice and specialty medical education expectations and standards. In addition, the committee wanted to ensure that our initial certification exam was more fully aligned with continuing certification blueprints (Continuous Assessment Program/CAP, Continuous Qualification Exam/CQE) emerging since the last blueprint update in 2018.
Features of the new blueprint include:
• Shift from ~65% clinical/35% basic science to 75% clinical/25% basic science items
• Fully aligned with CAP and CQE blueprints
• Basic science and clinical science two major categories (A & B) abandoned in favor of the more clinically oriented allergy/hypersensitivity and immunological disorder major categories
• Expectations for foundational knowledge of allergic and immunologic basic science principles preserved (e.g. pathophysiology under each disorder)
• No major training program curriculum changes needed to prepare candidates for the exam (all prior content realigned, no new diseases)
• Minor changes in percentages of major content areas reflecting evolving changes in allergy-immunology clinical practice
• Addition of emerging national health priority category to address evolving cross-cutting clinical principles impacting allergy-immunology and all specialties (e.g. opioid crisis, healthcare disparities)
This more clinically focused initial certification exam blueprint is an example of ABAI’s enduring commitment to continuously improve its programs and assessments.
Dr. Corinne Keet served as committee chair. Members included Drs. Mariana Castells, Ramsay Fuleihan, Mitchell Grayson, Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, and Princess Ogbogu. Their work was expertly facilitated by Mr. Will Thompson from the ABAI staff. The entire ABAI Board of Directors also contributed to this review and endorsed the final blueprint recommendation from the committee unanimously.
Please contact the ABAI office for any questions regarding this new blueprint.