Twenty-three scholars will receive financial awards for research in artificial intelligence, patient care, competency-based assessments, and physician burnout
CHICAGO, Sept. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has selected a record number of 23 outstanding physicians to participate in its 2026-2027 Scholars Program™. Established in 2014, the one-year, part-time program supports early-career physicians and researchers in scholarship and leadership development focusing on initial and continuing board certification. Each ABMS Scholar receives a $15,000 financial award.
“The increasing number of applicants and grant recipients are clear indicators of the growing significance of research that addresses issues in board certification and physician assessment,” said Greg Ogrinc, MD, MS, ABMS Senior Vice President, Certification Standards and Programs. “The work of these talented Scholars will generate new insights that will advance certification programs and improve patient care.”
ABMS Scholars are selected based on the quality of their proposed research project, the relevance of their research to the ABMS mission and the certification community, and the ability to make considerable progress on the research project during the scholar year. Program participants remain at their home institutions, collaborate with self-selected mentors, and participate in monthly virtual sessions with research project overviews and updates to peers, research mentors, co-sponsoring Member Board leaders, subject matter experts, and ABMS Scholar alumni.
This ABMS Scholars cohort will begin in September 2026, and their term will culminate at the ABMS Conference 2027, when they will present their research findings before a national audience.
The 2026-2027 ABMS Scholars co-sponsors include the ABMS Research and Education Foundation (ABMS-REF) and the following ABMS Member Boards: Allergy and Immunology, Anesthesiology, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine (Foundation), Medical Genetics and Genomics, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pathology, Pediatrics, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Radiology, Surgery, and Urology.
The following are the 2026-2027 ABMS Scholars and their co-sponsoring organizations:
American Board of Medical Specialties Research and Education Foundation (ABMS—REF)
Erin Finn, MD – University of North Carolina
Project: Developing and Validating a Competency-Based Assessment Tool for Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in Heart Failure: The Modified CLUE Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mCLUE-CEX)
Sadia Ilyas, MD – University of California San Diego
Project: Burden or Meaning? The Structural Features of Quality Improvement
Participation that Shape Physician Well-Being and Sustained Engagement
Adam Johnson, MD, MPH – Duke University School of Medicine
Project: Empowering Clinicians to Evaluate Local Patient-Centered Outcomes in Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia Using Electronic Health Record Data
Hyunjoo Ko, MD – Mount Sinai Hospital
Project: AI-Administered Constructed-Response Assessment of Clinical Reasoning in Anesthesiology
American Board of Allergy and Immunology
Sydney O’Malley, MD – Mayo Clinic
Project: The Allergist/Immunologist Workforce and Health Equity: Geographic Distribution and Specialist Shortages Across Socioeconomic Strata in the United States
American Board of Anesthesiology
Morgan Graves, MD – Mayo Clinic
Project: Using Failure to Achieve Planned Same-Day Discharge to Develop Competency-Based Perioperative Assessment: An EHR-Derived Case-Finding Framework
American Board of Dermatology
Elizabeth Bailey, MD, MPH – Stanford University School of Medicine
Project: Development of Entrustable Professional Activities for Dermatology Residency
Drew Saylor, MD, MPH, FAAD, FACMS – University of California San Francisco
Project: Pathology Concordance as a Competency Milestone: Developing a Concordance Assessment Tool and EPA Framework for Frozen Section Interpretation in Mohs Surgery Fellowship
American Board of Emergency Medicine
The J. David Barry, MD Scholar is Destiny Folk, MD – Indiana University School of Medicine
Project: A National Evaluation of Burnout, Mistreatment, and In-Training Examination Performance Among Emergency Medicine Residents
American Board of Internal Medicine (Foundation)
Carl Drake, MD, MPH, MHPE – Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Project: From Practice to Performance: Leveraging the EHR to Explore Associations Between Medicine Residents’ Clinical Experiences and Certification Outcomes
American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics
Annie Niehaus, MD – Stanford University School of Medicine
Project: Development of a real-time assessment framework and feedback platform for medical genetics and genomics (MGG) residency and fellowship programs based on entrustable professional activities (EPAs)
American Board of Ophthalmology
Amy Zhang, MD – University of Michigan
Project: Initial Certification Timing, Pass Rate and Preparation Experiences in Ophthalmology Board Certification
American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery
Tanio Dagher, MD – Johns Hopkins Hospital
Project: Assessing Orthopaedic Residents as Teachers: Development and Validation of an Instrument for Evaluating Intraoperative Teaching Skills
American Board of Pathology
Robert Christian, MD – Oregon Health & Science University
Project: Feasibility and Efficacy Study of a Competency-Based Hospital Autopsy Assessment Tool
American Board of Pediatrics
Georgina Pike Clegg, MD – University of Michigan
Project: Understanding Resident Experience with Workplace-Based Assessment Applications
American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Zachary Carter, MD – Duke University School of Medicine
Project: Advance-Spine: An Interdisciplinary Value-Based Curriculum to Train Physicians to Implement Biopsychosocial Care Models
American Board of Radiology
Warren Campbell IV, MD, PhD – University of Virginia Medical Center
Project: Quantifying Diagnostic Excellence: Utilizing AI Consensus Models on Trainee Preliminary Reports to Optimize Diagnostic Quality and Clinical Feedback for Radiology Residents
Kofi Deh, PhD, DABR – Howard University
Project: Measuring What Certification Misses: AI-Assisted Clinical Reasoning Assessment and Opportunity Analysis in Medical Physics Residency Training
Mary Mahoney, MD – Fox Chase Cancer Center
Project: Building Radiation Oncology Resident Confidence and Competency with a Comprehensive Transition to Practice Rotation
Daniel Veyg, DO – Northwell Health North Shore University Hospital
Project: Development and Validation of an AI-Driven Adaptive Curriculum for Interventional Radiology Residency: A Competency-Based Approach to Personalized IR Education
American Board of Surgery
Jacob Reich, MD – Intraoperative Performance Analytics Laboratory – Lenox Hill Hospital
Project: Measuring Surgical Performance Improvement Using OPI-based Scoring Before and After Robotic Simulation Exercises
Phillip Jenkins, MD – Oregon Health & Science University
Project: Operationalizing Surgical Informatics Training: Competency Framework Development and Dual-Certification Pathway Evaluation at a Single Academic Center
American Board of Urology
Robert Wang, MD – Massachusetts General Brigham
Project: Aligning Core Urology EPAs with Real-World Training and Practice Patterns
About ABMS
Established in 1933, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is responsible for the creation of standards overseeing physician certification in the United States. Dedicated to improving the quality of care to the patients, families and communities they serve, the 24 ABMS Member Boards develop educational and professional standards and programs of assessment to certify physicians and medical specialists. More than one million physicians and medical specialists are certified by one or more of the ABMS Member Boards in one or more of 38 specialties and 89 subspecialties. For more information about ABMS, abms.org or call (312) 436-2600.
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SOURCE American Board of Medical Specialties
