ABP Transplant Hepatology

Yes. A candidate must be currently certified in pediatric gastroenterology to be eligible for the transplant hepatology certifying examination, and the ABP states that no exceptions to this policy will be granted. Maintaining the transplant hepatology certificate also requires ongoing Maintenance of Certification in pediatric gastroenterology, so the two credentials stay linked.

No. The ABP document addresses only its own requirements and directs candidates whose primary certificate comes from the American Board of Internal Medicine to contact ABIM for its eligibility criteria. Registration dates may also differ between the two boards, so confirm the timeline with the board that issued your primary certificate before you plan a study schedule.

The subspecialty examinations are offered every other year. All subspecialty training must be satisfactorily completed before the first day of the month in which the examination is administered. If your contracted training period runs past that date, you are ineligible for that examination even when the formal training finished earlier and the remaining time is used only for leave.

Beginning with the examinations administered in 2014, applicants must have completed the required training within the previous seven years. If the training was not completed inside that window, an additional period of supervised practice is required before applying. Because the examination is offered only every other year, the acceptance window can lapse in a year without an examination, so verify timing early.

No. Training completed as part of the pediatric gastroenterology fellowship cannot be used to qualify for the transplant hepatology certifying examination. No credit is given for subspecialty training during core general pediatrics residency or a chief residency, and a period of time already used to qualify for another pediatric or non-ABP subspecialty cannot be applied again.

Training must be verified for admission. If verification is missing, or any competency other than professionalism alone is rated unsatisfactory, you must complete an additional period of subspecialty fellowship training, verified separately by that program's director, before reapplying. For a professionalism-only finding, additional training or, at the program director's recommendation and ABP discretion, a period of observation may be required, with an approved remediation plan.

Part-time training is permitted, but a fellow training part-time must complete the required training on a part-time basis in a period not exceeding two years, so the schedule compresses rather than stretches the pathway. Map that timeline against the every-other-year examination cycle before committing, since a misalignment can cost you an entire cycle.

No. The certifying examinations for 2010 were the last for which an individual could apply for certification using practice experience accrued by the deadline stated in the original eligibility criteria when the subspecialty was established. Candidates now qualify through fellowship training and program director verification of clinical competence, including professionalism.

Build the plan from the ABP subspecialty content outline, then rank the six domains by how often you encounter them and how confident you feel. The most preventable setbacks are administrative: unverified training, a fellowship end date after the first of the examination month, or an expired seven-year window. Content-side, protect time for immunosuppression and portal hypertension complications rather than over-investing in rare metabolic disease.