Society of Hospital Medicine Position on the American Board of Pediatrics Response to the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Petition

SHM supports future efforts by the ABP to be vigilant for bias of any sort in the certification process. Other future considerations for the PHM community include the possibility of a focused practice pathway in hospital medicine (FPHM) for pediatrics as is currently jointly offered by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM). This maintenance of certification program is a variation of internal medicine or family medicine recertification, not a subspecialty, but allows physicians practicing primarily in inpatient settings to focus continuing education efforts on skills and attitudes needed for inpatient practice.⁹ While this possibility was discounted by the ABP in the past based on initially low numbers of physicians choosing this pathway, this pathway has grown from initially attracting 150 internal medicine applicants yearly to 265 in 2015.¹⁰ The ABMS approved the ABIM/ABFM FPHM as its first approved designation in March 2017 after more than 2,500 physicians earned this designation.¹¹ Of the >2,800 pediatric residency graduates (not including combined programs) each year, 10% report planning on becoming pediatric hospitalists,¹² and currently only 72-74 fellows graduate from PHM fellowships yearly.¹³ FPHM for pediatric hospital medicine would provide focused maintenance of certification and hospitalist designation for those who cannot match to fellowship programs.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the input and support from the Executive Council of the Society of Hospital Medicine Pediatric Special Interest Group in writing this statement.

Disclosures

Dr. Chang served as an author of the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Petition to the American Board of Pediatrics for Subspecialty Certification. Drs. Hopkins, Rehm, Gage, and Shen have nothing to disclose.