The use of practice analysis to develop a content outline for a board certifying examination.

Abstract

Since the first physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) board certification in 1947, PM&R's board-certifying Part I Examinations have been created by volunteer subject matter experts (SME) in private and academic practices. The American Board of PM&R (ABPMR) relies on the SMEs to create the exam's content outline that is then used as the framework to craft questions for the exam. Although this is a rigorous process with representative specialties across the entire spectrum of PM&R, it relies on the opinions and experiences of these SMEs. Because PM&R has grown in many clinical directions, in 2023, the ABPMR determined that the content outline should more appropriately reflect an updated scope of practice for the specialty. To achieve this goal, ABPMR contracted a psychometric consulting company, with experience in high-stakes professional credentialing, to complete a practice analysis for PM&R. To develop an updated content outline for the PM&R Part I certifying exam that embodied the breadth of the specialty including the knowledge and skills required of a competent PM&R physician upon completion of residency training. Pursuant to this goal, the rigorous research methodology called practice analysis was employed. This article describes the process of practice analysis including project planning; use of focus groups; survey development, dissemination, and analysis; and decision making to determine content and domain weighting for the ABPMR Part I Examination. This information was used by SMEs to assemble a revised content outline to be used for future board Part I Examinations in PM&R. For the first time since its inception, the content outline of the ABPMR Part I Examination was successfully updated using a practice analysis method. This report described the process to achieve this goal.