Clinical Exam

New Format Clinical Exam

The AOBA is committed to promoting quality Osteopathic Anesthesia Certification and has adopted a new Clinical Exam format. This format requires the Candidate to complete three facets: Compiling ten (10) cases for Examiner review, a departmental chair or medical director letter of good standing and participation in a remote case defense session.

Eligibility

To take the AOBA Clinical Exam for primary certification in Anesthesiology candidates must have:

• Successfully passed the AOBA Written Exam and Oral Exam for primary certification in Anesthesiology.
• Successfully completed an ACGME-accredited Anesthesiology residency.
• Completed one year of clinical practice.

Requirements

To sit for the Clinical Exam, candidates must:

• Submit a completed application, required documentation and application fee prior to the application deadline.
• Confirm that a verification letter has been emailed directly by your residency program to postdoc@osteopathic.org attesting to the successful completion of an ACGME-accredited residency training in Anesthesiology.
• Submit a log of all anesthetic procedures personally administered* by you for a period of three months prior to submission of your application. Logs must be submitted using the AOBA Case Log template and must include a minimum of 15 procedures documented. Candidates are required to continue maintaining case logs for all anesthetic procedures performed until the scheduled Case Defense session.

*Personally administered cases are those which you have administered on your own or you have personally supervised a physician-trainee. If your list does contain cases of personally supervised physician-trainees, these cases should be indicated as outlined in the log template. Supervised cases of CRNAs or SRNAs are not accepted.

Exam Fees

An exam fee of $2,000 must be submitted with your completed application. No application will be considered complete until all fees have been paid.

Applications submitted after the first deadline must include a 30% late fee ($600), or $2,600 total. Examination fees must be made by credit card within the application portal; no other forms of payment are accepted.

Exam Cancellation Fees

• 0-30 days before the exam: no refund
• 31 days or more prior to the exam date: 50% refund
• No refunds of late fees
• Rejected applications: 75% refund

Note: Prior to submitting your application, please be certain that you meet the criteria to apply.

Exam Dates and Deadlines

The AOBA Clinical Exam is generally offered twice per year. The application period opens six months prior to the exam. Upon successful completion of the application process, the AOBA will advise applicants via email of acceptance to take the exam.

• The Winter Clinical Exam
  • Application period: October – March
  • Administered: April – September

• The Spring Clinical Exam
  • Application period: March – August
  • Administered: October – March

All Candidates requesting testing accommodations must submit their requests at the time of application and by the final application deadline.

Exam Process

As part of the application for the Clinical Exam, Candidates must submit a log of all personally administered anesthetic procedures for a period of three months prior to submission of your application. Logs must be submitted using the AOBA Case Log template. Supervised cases of CRNAs or SRNAs may not be included on the log file.

Following approval of the application, Candidates will receive instructions regarding preparation of redacted case materials for ten cases, and the process for upload to a secure file sharing system. Supervised cases of CRNAs or SRNAs may not be submitted for the case review portion of the examination. The AOBA is not evaluating the case management of CRNAs or SRNAs, but of the physician for whom the examination is being administered; Candidates must submit their own personally performed cases. It is recommended that Candidates notify their institution’s Medical Records Department during the application process to ensure the availability of required documentation.

A letter of good standing from the Candidate’s institution should also be submitted via email to the AOBA. Letters should be on an organizational letterhead and signed.

Examiners will review the submitted materials and contact the Candidate, advising them of a subset of five that has been submitted for review. A remote Case Defense session will be scheduled, and during this session Examiners will discuss two of the previously designated five cases with the Candidate.

Examination Scoring

A raw score of at least 70 is considered passing for the Clinical Exam, broken down into two areas:

• Medical Records Review: Accounts for 40% of the score and includes review of ten redacted medical records submitted.
• Case Defense: Accounts for 60% of the score and is based on the Candidate’s discussion of the selected cases.

In the event of a failing grade, the Examiner will provide a written explanation of deficiencies.

Examination Failure

Following initial failure of the Clinical Exam, a Candidate may reapply for the exam by completing the following steps:

• Apply for the exam and pay all appropriate fees.
• Submit six months of logs that do not include any of the cases from the previously submitted logs.
• Present six detailed case reports of anesthetics you personally administered within a specified period.

Candidates must successfully pass all certification exams (Written, Oral and Clinical) within six years of completing an AOA or ACGME-accredited training program. Physicians who are unable to complete the process within six years of completing a residency training program or who fail any exam required for certification (Written, Oral and Clinical) three times must petition the AOBA to enter the post board eligibility certification process within three years of termination of board eligibility.