AMERICAN BOARD OF PHYSICIAN NUTRITION SPECIALISTS
PROGRESS REPORT, 2008 

 

 

The American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists (ABPNS) was founded in 2001 by the Intersociety Professional Nutrition Education Consortium (IPNEC) to provide a unified mechanism for certifying Physician Nutrition Specialists®.

 

Paradigm of Physician Nutrition Specialist®  

 

A Physician Nutrition Specialist ® (PNS) is a physician with training in nutrition who devotes a substantial career effort to nutrition and who can assume a leadership role in coordinating interdisciplinary clinical nutrition services and education in academic health centers, other medical centers, private practice, and other health care settings. PNSs generally have backgrounds in the specialties of internal medicine, pediatrics, family medicine, or general surgery, and sometimes in subspecialties such as adult or pediatric gastroenterology, endocrinology, critical care, nephrology, cardiology, or others. They have completed a period of defined nutrition training, in addition to categorical residency training, that includes mastery of a defined core of knowledge and completion of a period of mentored clinical nutrition experience, which may be obtained in a nutrition fellowship or as part of training in another subspecialty. They have satisfied all requirements of, and are certified by, the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists.

Member organizations

The following professional nutrition societies have standing representation on the ABPNS Board of Directors:

  • American Society for Nutrition
  • American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition
  • The Obesity Society (North American Association for the Study of Obesity)
  • American Gastroenterological Association
  • American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
  • American College of Nutrition
  • Canadian Society for Clinical Nutrition
ABPNS/IPNEC Accomplishments

Publicity

The ABPNS examination is regularly announced in the following publications and venues:

Journals and newsletters (multiple announcements in some cases)

 

  1. Established an intersociety consortium with funding from NIH, participating societies, and industry partners
  2. Developed and refined a paradigm for Physician Nutrition Specialists® (see above)
  3. Conducted a national role delineation study to define the parameters of the discipline of clinical nutrition
  4. Disseminated information about the consortium’s rationale and activities through national meetings and publications, including the following:
  • Intersociety Professional Nutrition Education Consortium. Bringing physician nutrition specialists into the mainstream: Rationale for the Intersociety Professional Nutrition Education Consortium. Am J Clin Nutr 1998; 68:894-8 (http://www.ajcn.org).
  • Heimburger DC, Intersociety Professional Nutrition Education Consortium. Physician nutrition specialist track: if we build it, will they come? Am J Clin Nutr 2000; 71:1048-53 (http://www.ajcn.org).
  • Heimburger DC, Intersociety Professional Nutrition Education Consortium. Training and certifying gastroenterologists as physician nutrition specialists. J Clin Gastroenterol 2002; 34:505-8 (http://www.jcge.com).
  • Symposium, Training & Certifying Physician Nutrition Specialists – A New Paradigm, at Nutrition Week 2002.
  • Mathews A, Heimburger DC, Myers EF. Collaboratively enhancing nutrition care: Regis-tered Dietitian and Physician Nutrition Specialist®. Nutrition & the MD 2004; 30(9):1-4.
  • Distribution of IPNEC and ABPNS brochures at member society annual meetings.
  • Apovian CM, Kushner RF. The expanding role of nutrition in endocrinology and metabolism. Current Opinion in Endocrinology and Diabetes 2006, 13:403-404.
  • Apovian CM, Lenders CM. Obesity as realm for the physician nutrition specialist. In: Apovian CM, Lenders CM eds. A Clinical Guide for Management of Overweight and Obese Adults. CRC Series in Modern Nutrition Science. CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2006.
  1. Established a website (http://www.ipnec.org) for free access to all IPNEC and ABPNS materials and information. Collectively, the IPNEC/ABPNS website receives 5000-6000 unique visitors per month, up from less than 3000 per month a year ago.
  2. Developed a comprehensive IPNEC Curriculum Guide to provide direction for training PNSs in post-residency fellowships in adult and pediatric nutrition, gastroenterology, endocrinology, critical care, and other fellowship programs that can provide at least 6 months’ time dedicated to learning nutrition. The IPNEC Curriculum guide is freely available on the IPNEC website, at www.ipnec.org/guide. It was comprehensively reviewed and updated in 2005.
  3. Founded the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists (ABPNS, www.ipnec.org/abpns,) to implement an independent unified PNS certification examination. Inaugurated in November 2001, this examination is given annually. The ABPNS currently has 347 diplomates. In 2005, 135 candidates took the exam. Since 2002, the pass rate has been 67% to 75%. In 2006, 21 candidates took the exam and 17 of them passed, with a pass rate of 81%. In 2007, 5 candidates took the exam and 4 of them passed, with a pass rate of 80%. The closing of the grandparenting window in 2005 explains why there was a big drop in candidates in 2006.
  4. Established an Online Directory of ABPNS Diplomates on the ABPNS website that individuals and organizations can view and search to identify and contact Physician Nutrition Specialists® in their own areas and around the world.
  5. Conducted a survey of ABPNS Diplomates to detail their backgrounds, training, and interests and to explore what they find valuable about ABPNS certification.
  6. Inaugurated a Physician Nutrition Specialist® Training page on the IPNEC website to encourage and facilitate the development of nutrition fellowship programs and to provide a central resource in which potential trainees can investigate fellowship programs. This page is now the most comprehensive resource for identifying clinical nutrition fellowship programs, based on a 2004 national survey of nutrition fellowship programs conducted along with the American Society for Clinical Nutrition’s Committee on Professional Nutrition Education.
  7. ABPNS is currently evaluating a need for adjustment of the topics in the latest version of the exam to address the calling for more physicians to enter the field of obesity medicine. With the American Society of Metabolic & Bariatric Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons establishing Centers of Excellence in Bariatric Surgery, there has emerged an intense need for physicians who are specialized in taking care of pre- and post-operative weight loss surgery patients. The number of patients in the U.S. undergoing bariatric surgery has increased 10-fold in the last 10 years, and the surgical organizations governing surgeons who do this type of surgery have increased surveillance and provided the means to collect data to improve complications and mortality rates for this popular surgery. The scope of education needed to continue physician testing in Nutrition will be evaluated by the Board members this year. We are engaged in discussions with member societies to establish a new certification examination for specialists in obesity medicine under the ABPNS umbrella. We hope this will bring significant numbers of new candidates in future years and will serve the public and the medical profession by recognizing expertise in the important evolving field of obesity medicine.
  • American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) - ASN
  • Journal of Nutrition (JN) - ASN
  • Nutrition Notes (ASN Newsletter)
  • ASPEN News (ASPEN Newsletter)
  • A.S.P.E.N. e-News (ASPEN)
  • ACN Newsletter
  • Obesity – (NAASO)
  • Gastroenterology – (AGA)
  • Endocrine Practice – (AACE)
Links to IPNEC website on member society websites

Brochures distributed and ads posted at national and international meetings

  • American Society for Nutrition (Experimental Biology)
  • ASPEN (Clinical Nutrition Week)
  • American Gastroenterological Association (Digestive Diseases Week)
  • American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
  • NAASO, The Obesity Society
  • American College of Nutrition
  • Canadian Society for Clinical Nutrition
Letters to training program directors

Letters and brochures promoting the ABPNS examination are sent annually to the directors of all (~1,119) U.S. fellowship programs in pediatric and adult gastroenterology, nutrition, endocrinology, and critical care medicine.