In the early 1980s, the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) Board of Directors decided that the organization should become involved in educational and research efforts related to pediatric training, staffing, and practice. By 1986, the ABP Foundation was chartered by the Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.
During the 1990s, the ABP Foundation projects focused primarily on enhancing pediatric medical education and the pediatric workforce. In the early 2000s, the Foundation launched several new initiatives. While the Foundation continued to study medical education and the pediatric workforce in the years that followed, recent work has focused on clinical and knowledge assessment; behavioral and mental health of children, adolescents, and young adults; and parent and young adult patient perspectives.
As a foundation, we continue to draw on lessons from our previous funded work to inform our current and future grant-making policies and procedures.
Timeline of Selected ABP Foundation Activities
These activities were often conducted in collaboration with other organizations.
Early 1990s | Hosted educational seminars on topics such as “Women in Medicine” and “Entry into Graduate Medical Education During the Fourth Year of Medical School” |
1992-1995 | Launched general pediatrics workforce surveys through questions to pediatric trainees during annual in-service training examinations, followed by the general pediatrics exam and subspecialty exams |
1992 | Published first Workforce Data Book |
1997 | Changed from a 501(c)3 charitable organization to a 501(c)3 supporting organization |
1997-1999 | Supported the three-year Future of Pediatric Education (FOPE) II Task Force1, coordinated by the American Academy of Pediatrics |
1999 | Formed ABP Research Advisory Committee to oversee ABP and ABP Foundation research activities |
2001-present | Began survey research initiative on the pediatric workforce in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Children’s Health Evaluation and Research Unit |
2001-2004 | Hosted working group that addressed the duration, design, and content of fellowship training; their deliberations resulted in major changes to subspecialty training requirements, including a mandated focus on scholarly activity |
2003-2007 | Supported collaborative network models to improve care and outcomes for child health, with subsequent seed funding that led to the launches of ImproveCareNow, the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative, the Pediatric Rheumatology Care and Outcomes Innovation Network, and, ultimately, the successful learning network model |
2005-2008 | Launched the three-year Residency Review and Redesign in Pediatrics (R3P) Project2 that proposed continuous evaluation and innovation at the program level — rather than episodic, system-wide changes — to improve the quality of pediatric residency education |
2009-2011 | 48 observable behaviors that can be used to assess the preparedness of trainees for unsupervised practice |
2009-2014 | Started the initiative for Innovation in Pediatric Education (IIPE)4 program that partnered with the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) to build the APPD Longitudinal Educational Assessment Research Network (APPD LEARN) and support multi-site educational research projects and endorsed eight projects with researchers from 15 institutions |
2010-2013 | Hosted the Subspecialty Clinical Training and Certification (SCTC) Task Force5, which determined the need for a core set of clinical, procedural, and scholarly competencies for all fellows, regardless of subspecialty, to ensure they are prepared for unsupervised practice |
2011-present | Launched multiple validity research studies on the pediatric milestones and general pediatric and subspecialty entrustable professional activities (EPAs)6 |
2015-2016 | Restructured ABP Foundation Board of Directors and Research Advisory Committee and developed strategic plan for Foundation activities from 2016-2019 |
2013-2019 | Launched the Global Health Task Force with Pediatric Global Health (GH) Leadership Conference in 2015; published multiple peer-reviewed papers in academic journals and the “Global Health in Pediatric Education: An Implementation Guide for Program Directors”7 |
2015 | Hosted the Future of Testing Conference,8 where international experts shared recent innovations in assessment and in the use of technology to aid in assessment |
2015-2018 | Conducted formative evaluation study of MOCA-Peds, the ABP’s online alternative to MOC Part 3 proctored examinations |
2015-present | Launched the Family Leadership Advisory Group (FLAG) and Patient/Parent Initiative; formalized as the Family Leadership Committee (FLC) in 2018 |
2016-present | Identified emotional resilience and behavioral and mental health challenges among children as the largest gap in pediatric training and practice; the Foundation funds multiple research and training efforts over the next decade9 |
2017-present | Restructured the ABP's pediatric workforce data efforts and launched interactive data dashboards |
2019 | Developed strategic plan for Foundation activities from 2020-2022 |
2019 | Completed several major studies examining the validity of the entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for pediatric residents |
2021 | >Launched new dashboard on race and ethnicity of trainees and ABP-certified physicians |
2022 | Committed to a multi-year series of implementation studies focused on the EPAs |
2023 | Completed several major studies examining the validity of the EPAs for pediatric subspecialty fellows |
2023 | Initiated evaluation of a behavioral/mental health curriculum based on the behavioral/mental health EPA in partnership with the Association of Pediatric Program Directors |
2024 | Disseminated results from a 4-year study creating a microsimulation model of the pediatric subspecialty workforce from 2020-2040 |
2024 | Hosting the Future of Certification Summit |
Related Links
1Future of Pediatric Education (FOPE) II Task Force
2Residency Review and Redesign in Pediatrics (R3P) Project
3Pediatrics Milestone Project (PDF)
4Initiative for Innovation in Pediatric Education (IIPE) (PDF)
5Subspecialty Clinical Training and Certification (SCTC) Task Force
6Entrustable professional activities (EPAs)
7Global Health in Pediatric Education: An Implementation Guide for Program Directors