Combined Training Programs
We partner with other medical specialty certifying boards to provide combined training programs with emergency medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics. These programs consist of a minimum of five years of residency training, and prepare physicians for dual certification in both anesthesiology and the other specialty. Participants can take the certifying exam for either board once they successfully complete training.
Training Away
Residents have the option to complete training away from their ACGME-accredited anesthesiology programs after they complete at least one year of CA training, unless the training will be in another ACGME-accredited anesthesiology program. This option is not available during the last three months of residents' CA-3 year. Their program directors should submit the request for training away to our Credentials Committee at least four months before the physician begins the training.
Research
Residents who are enrolled in an ACGME-accredited program can also pursue research initiatives at the same time. They can dedicate as much as 25 percent of their three- or four-year training program, and 38 percent of their five-year program, to scholarly activities. To qualify for research options, residents need to have a satisfactory training report for the six months preceding their research period. If research activities will span more than six months, program directors should develop a plan with strict guidelines for research activities and work product oversight.
Alternate Entry Path (AEP)
The AEP program encourages outstanding international medical program graduates and certified anesthesiologists to become productive members of academic anesthesiology programs in the U.S. and provides a pathway for them to take our staged exams for anesthesiology certification.
Anesthesiology departments can now have as many as four international medical graduates enrolled in the AEP program at one time.
SPECIAL TRAINING
Special education programs are designed to provide residents with an opportunity to add an additional year of training outside of the standard 12 months of clinical base and 36 months of clinical anesthesia training. Residency training programs wishing to participate must apply to the ABA for consideration prior to seeking approval from the ACGME. Programs approved and designated to serve as special training programs by the ABA must then request approval from the ACGME prior to final consideration by the Resident Review Committee (RRC). Once approved, programs may offer residents an opportunity to add up to a year of research or a year of specialized training in critical care medicine, pain medicine, adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology, hospice and palliative medicine, sleep medicine or pediatric anesthesiology.
view program proposal guidelines and requirements
ACCM Fellowships
(Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine Fellowships)
In 2013, the ABMS Board of Directors approved joint sponsorship between the ABA and the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) of certification in Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine (ACCM). Emergency physicians can now apply for ACGME-accredited ACCM fellowship training after their Emergency Medicine residency training. When they have completed a 24-month ABA-approved CCM fellowship, they can seek Board certification.
Programs that wish to offer a two-year fellowship must receive prospective approval from the ABA before any trainees accepted into the two-year anesthesiology critical care medicine fellowship can qualify for certification under the training pathway.
Dual Pathway
The American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) and the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) have agreed to a pathway that allows an individual to complete training in pediatric critical care medicine (PCCM) and anesthesiology in a shorter period of time than is required for separate training in each of the disciplines. Satisfactory completion of the pathway would confer eligibility for certification in both disciplines after 5 years of training.