Medical Specialties

Doctors are smart people, but these days we know more about the human body and keeping it healthy than any one person could possibly fit in their head, no matter how smart he or she might be. That's why we have specialists, doctors who focus on a particular aspect of patient care. For example, cardiologists focus on the heart, and ways to treat heart disease, while endocrinologists focus on everything dealing with the endocrine glands and hormones.

Others concentrate on a specific area of the specialty and may focus on certain body systems, specific age groups or complex scientific techniques to diagnose or treat particular medical conditions.

Certification Matters.

If your doctor is certified by an ABMS Member Board, it means he or she is dedicated to providing exceptional patient care through a rigorous, voluntary commitment to lifelong learning through board certification and ABMS Maintenance of Certification (MOC).

In addition to completing years of schooling, fulfi lling residency requirements and passing the exams required to practice medicine in your state, your board certified specialist participates in an ongoing process of continuing education to keep current with the latest advances in medical science and technology in his or her specialty as well as best practices in patient safety, quality healthcare and creating a responsive patient-focused environment.

To maintain board certification, your physician participates in an extensive process that involves completing accredited education and specialty training and periodic oral and written exams to demonstrate competency.

While physicians who are preparing for careers in teaching, research or practice in a subspecialty field sometimes pursue subspecialty certification, many practicing certified specialists do not. Since there is no requirement or need for a certified physician in a recognized specialty to hold special certification in a subspecialty of that field, the lack of a subspecialty certification does not indicate that a physician is unqualified to practice in the subspecialty.

To read the rest of these informative articles from the American Board of Medical Specialties, please click here: http://www.abms.org/Who_We_Help/Consumers/specialties.aspx