Research Projects

The American Board of Medical Specialties Research and Education Foundation (ABMS REF) grant program funds innovative research that explores the impact of board certification and aims to enhance health care quality and professional standards. Meet the grant recipients and learn about their research projects.

2026–2028 Grant Cohort

From Exposure to Entrustment: Mapping Resident Competency Development for Individualized Pathways in Emergency Medicine Training

Holly Caretta-Weyer, MD, MHPE
Associate Professor
Stanford University School of Medicine

BRIDGE: Building Reliable Insights from Data across Graduate training to Early practice

Daniel Donoho, MD
Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery
Children’s National Hospital

Harnessing EHR Data to Develop Low-touch Assessments of Bedside Clinical Skills

Brian Garibaldi, MD, MEHP
Charles Horace Mayo Professor of Medicine
Center for Bedside Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Gopi Astik, MD, MS
Associate Professor
Center for Bedside Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Courtney Reamer, MD
Center for Bedside Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Practice‑Derived Knowledge Needs in Emergency Medicine: Comparing Millions of AI Clinical Information Queries With ABEM Assessment Blueprints

Martin Wegman, MD, PhD, MSc, FACEP
Head of Research
American College of Emergency Physicians

2025–2027 Grant Cohort

Developing and Validating a Professionalism Instrument for Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Jenny X. Chen, MD, EdM
Assistant Professor
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Morbidity and Mortality for Birthing Individuals: Understanding the Impact of Family Medicine Perinatal and Obstetric Fellowships on Perinatal Care in the US (MUM)

Alison N. Huffstetler, MD
Assistant Professor
Virginia Commonwealth University

Entrustable Professional Activities to Inform Competency-Based Board Admissibility in Surgery

Brenessa M. Lindeman, MD, MEHP
Assistant Professor; Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Enhancing Residency-Fellowship Transition: Exploring the Role of Board Certification and Milestones Competency Ratings as Feedback for Learner Preparedness

Yoon Soo Park, PhD
Ilene Harris Professor; Department Head of Medical Education
University of Illinois College of Medicine

2024–2026 Grant Cohort

In 2023, the ABMS REF invited grant proposals under two themes: General Certification (funded by the ABMS REF) and Diagnostic Excellence Through Certification (primarily funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation).

General Certification

The Impact of Continuing Certification on Quality of Patient Care

Arch Mainous III, PhD
Professor
University of Florida

A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Relative Merits of Different Oral Certifying Examination Formats

Brigitte Smith, MD, MHPE
Associate Professor
University of Wisconsin

A Multi-Site Implementation and Effectiveness Study of a Protocol to Support Equitable Competency-Based Advancement Decisions and Resident-Driven Learning

Daniel West, MD
Senior Director of Medical Education and Professor
Penn School of Medicine
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Gender, Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Oral Board Examiners of Surgical Specialties

Fasika Woreta, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology
Wilmer Eye Institute
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Diagnostic Excellence Through Certification

Association Between Emergency Medicine Board Certification and Diagnostic Error in Emergency Care: A National Analysis

Laura Burke, MD
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Harvard Medical School

Automated Mapping of Visit Diagnoses to Specialty Board Clinical Domains for Enhanced Assessment, Certification, and Precision Education

Kiran Malhotra, MD
Clinical Informatics Fellow
New York University Langone Health

Enhancing Diagnostic Accuracy and Calibration via Automated Clone Item Generation and Personalized Feedback in Longitudinal Assessment

Ting Wang, PhD
Senior Psychometrician
American Board of Family Medicine