Component 3: Cognitive Assessment
Launch of Longitudinal Assessment
The Conjoint Examination Committee on Hospice and Palliative Medicine no longer administers the traditional high-stakes exam taken by its Diplomates at least once every ten years to fulfill the Component 3 requirement of Osteopathic Continuous Certification (OCC). Diplomates are now required to participate in the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Longitudinal Assessment (LA) to fulfill the Component 3 requirement of OCC during their expiration year.
Exam Process
The LA process is as follows:
The year prior to expiration the diplomate will be required to register for the Component 3 LA. Note that an email will be sent to eligible expiring diplomates to register for the LA process. Please be sure that your email is up to date on our database by visiting the AOA’s Physician Portal.
A table to assist you with your registration timeline is available below.
| Longitudinal Assessment (LA) Schedule | ||
|---|---|---|
| Expiration Year | Register for LA | Begin LA |
| 2025 |
October 2024 |
Spring 2025 |
| 2026 |
October 2025 |
Spring 2026 |
| 2027 |
October 2026 |
Spring 2027 |
| Etc. |
Etc. |
Etc. |
Longitudinal Assessment References
The Hospice & Palliative 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 Addiction 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 committee, 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 2025 Longitudinal Assessment.