ABIM Critical Care case studies

The ABIM Critical Care Medicine Certification Examination is the American Board of Internal Medicine's certifying assessment for physicians who have completed accredited critical care fellowship training and wish to be recognized as board certified in critical care medicine. It is aimed at intensivists practicing in medical, surgical, cardiac, and neurologic intensive care units, and it is generally taken alongside or after initial internal medicine certification. The exam samples the full breadth of adult critical care: respiratory failure and mechanical ventilation, shock and hemodynamic monitoring, neurocritical care, renal and acid-base physiology, sepsis and infection, endocrine and metabolic derangements, gastrointestinal, hepatic, and hematologic problems, trauma and burns, toxicology, procedures and resuscitation, and the ethics, palliative care, quality, and systems topics that surround ICU practice. Items are single-best-answer multiple choice and reward applied clinical reasoning over isolated recall, often presenting a deteriorating patient and asking for the next best step. The ABIM Critical Care case studies are 5 cases and about 1,898 words.