ABPS Disaster Medicine

It is a computer-delivered, multiple-choice examination. The board sets the current item count, appointment length, and any break policy, and publishes them in its candidate handbook and on its website. Check those sources before you schedule, because logistics are revised periodically and third-party summaries go stale.

Those figures are set by the American Board of Physician Specialties and are not fixed permanently. Rather than rely on a number quoted in a forum or an older study guide, confirm the current question count and allotted time in the official candidate handbook or by contacting the board directly.

The passing standard is established by the board through a standard-setting process and is not a publicly fixed percentage that stays constant. The board publishes its scoring and reporting policy. Plan to answer confidently across all content areas rather than targeting a specific raw score.

Candidates generally find it demanding because items are applied rather than definitional - you are often asked for the next best action under uncertainty. Physicians with operational experience (EMS, emergency management, deployable teams) have a head start, but breadth across CBRNE, public health, and hospital operations still requires deliberate review.

Retake eligibility, waiting periods, and any limits on attempts are governed by board policy and can change. The candidate handbook is the controlling document. Before reapplying, request your performance profile if one is offered, since domain-level feedback tells you where to concentrate a second attempt.

Start with incident command and mass casualty triage, because those concepts recur inside questions from other domains. Then work through CBRNE and public health, where unfamiliar terminology costs the most points. Finish with hospital operations, law and ethics, and recovery, and reserve the final weeks for scenario-based practice under time pressure.

Three recur: choosing a definitive treatment when the question asks for the first operational step, confusing triage categories across different systems, and missing the resource or authority constraint embedded in a scenario. Read the stem for who is asking, what resources exist, and whether the setting is prehospital, hospital, or public health.

You should understand the logic of the major triage systems well enough to apply them and recognize their categories, and know the sequence of scene and hospital decontamination. You do not need to reproduce proprietary course manuals verbatim; questions test the reasoning and priorities behind the algorithm.

Only with the American Board of Physician Specialties. The board's website and candidate handbook carry the authoritative eligibility requirements, application timeline, fees, testing windows, and score reporting. This page is an independent study resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the board.