Chicago – September 17, 2026 -- The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has selected a record 23 physicians for its 2026-2027 Scholars Program, each receiving a $15,000 financial award to conduct research on board certification, artificial intelligence in clinical assessment, and physician burnout.
ABMS expands its scholar cohort to a record size since the program's 2014 launch
The one-year, part-time initiative supports early-career physicians and researchers focused on initial and continuing board certification. Recipients remain at their home institutions, work with self-selected mentors, and join monthly virtual sessions with peers, mentors, Member Board leaders and program alumni. Greg Ogrinc, MD, ABMS Senior Vice President for Certification Standards and Programs, said the rising volume of applicants reflects growing interest in research addressing certification and physician assessment.
Fourteen Member Boards and the ABMS Research and Education Foundation co-sponsor this year's projects
Co-sponsors include the American Board of 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. Institutions represented among the 2026-2027 scholars include Stanford University School of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Mayo Clinic, and Massachusetts General Brigham, among others.
Four projects apply artificial intelligence directly to clinical training and diagnostic assessment
Hyunjoo Ko, MD, of Mount Sinai Hospital, is developing an AI-administered constructed-response assessment of clinical reasoning in anesthesiology. Warren Campbell IV, MD, PhD, of the University of Virginia Medical Center, is building AI consensus models to score trainee preliminary radiology reports. Kofi Deh, PhD, DABR, of Howard University, is using AI-assisted clinical reasoning assessment in medical physics residency training, while Daniel Veyg, DO, of Northwell Health North Shore University Hospital, is developing an AI-driven adaptive curriculum for interventional radiology residency.
Other scholars target physician burnout, workforce equity and competency-based evaluation tools
Sadia Ilyas, MD, of the University of California San Diego, is examining how quality-improvement participation shapes physician well-being and sustained engagement. Destiny Folk, MD, of Indiana University School of Medicine, designated the J. David Barry, MD Scholar, will conduct a national evaluation of burnout, mistreatment and in-training examination performance among emergency medicine residents. Sydney O'Malley, MD, of Mayo Clinic, is studying geographic distribution of allergist/immunologist shortages across socioeconomic strata in the United States.
Additional projects address surgical, pathology and procedural competency assessment
Jacob Reich, MD, at Lenox Hill Hospital's Intraoperative Performance Analytics Laboratory, is measuring surgical performance improvement using OPI-based scoring before and after robotic simulation exercises. Robert Christian, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University, is testing the feasibility of a competency-based hospital autopsy assessment tool. Tanio Dagher, MD, of Johns Hopkins Hospital, is developing an instrument to evaluate orthopaedic residents' intraoperative teaching skills.
The 2026-2027 cohort will present findings at the ABMS Conference 2027
The program begins in September 2026, with scholars presenting research outcomes before a national audience at the culmination of their term.