OCC Requirements

Longitudinal assessment is an annual requirement to maintain certification and is replacing the high-stakes exam OCC requirement. To complete Component 3 requirements for Osteopathic Continuous Certification in Geriatric Medicine, a physician must participate annually in Longitudinal Assessment.

Component 1: Active Licensure

To complete Component 1 requirements for Osteopathic Continuous Certification in the subspecialty of Geriatric Medicine, a physician must:

• Hold a valid, active license to practice medicine.
• Adhere to the AOA Code of Ethics.

Component 2: Lifelong Learning/Continuing Medical Education

Component 2 of the Osteopathic Continuous Certification process requires recertifying physicians to pursue lifelong learning through continuing medical education.

Geriatric Medicine is a subspecialty certification. As such, all subspecialty certificate holders must abide by the requirement of their primary certification board. There is no additional CME required to maintain a conjoint subspecialty certification.

Component 3: Cognitive Assessment

Launch of Longitudinal Assessment on CATALYST

Geriatric Medicine will no longer administer the traditional high-stakes exam taken by its diplomates to fulfill the Component 3 requirement of Osteopathic Continuous Certification (OCC). Diplomates will now be required to participate in the Geriatric Medicine Longitudinal Assessment (LA) to fulfill the Component 3 requirement of OCC. Diplomates will begin Longitudinal Assessment based on the following:

2024 Longitudinal Assessment References

The Geriatric Medicine longitudinal assessment is an “open book” assessment. If an article is free and accessible electronically, you will have the opportunity to read it via the direct links. In most situations, even if an article is not free, the Diplomate and/or their organization may be a subscriber to the publishing company and will not have any difficulty accessing the content. For some of the articles, a cited reference reading list is made available and posted on the Geriatric Medicine website. The Diplomate is responsible for obtaining these articles. While not mandatory, we do encourage you to read the articles in advance to prepare. Direct links to referenced articles are provided by the board, in addition to cited references.

The assessment is configured so that you have two attempts at the questions and are given the rationale for the correct answer upon responding. If there is an article that is hard for you to obtain, you may use the testing process to gain insight into the question and answer.

The following references are provided as a preparation tool for the 2024 Longitudinal Assessment.

Component 4: Practice Performance Assessment & Improvement

Component 4 requires physicians to engage in continuous quality improvement through comparison of personal practice performance measured against national standards for their medical specialty.

The American Osteopathic Geriatric Medicine Examination Committee requires all diplomates to follow the Component 4 requirements of their primary certifying board. Please contact your primary certifying board for more information.