February 20, 2026

The 2026 Policy Book is now live!

Following the Winter 2026 ABA Board of Directors meeting, we’ve completed a full review and update of the ABA Policy Book.

The policy book is updated annually to ensure our policies meet the needs of our programs, residents and board-certified anesthesiologists.

Key changes include:

• Updating “clinical base” terminology to fundamental clinical skills to align with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)
• Aligning our “retired” status with the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) definition
• Streamlining documentation by waiving the department chair’s signature requirement for Absence from Training
• Refining our policy for handling unprofessional behavior
• Expanding candidate consent on cheating to include recording, image capture, and exam reproduction, as well as legal ramifications

You can find a detailed list of all policy book revisions here.