Demographic Data Collection

The American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) and its Board of Directors are committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the specialty. Collecting detailed demographic data is essential to making an accurate assessment of the specialty’s current state and improving the diversity of practicing Emergency Medicine physicians so that they better reflect the populations we serve.

Moving forward, ABEM will request demographic data directly from physicians to:

• Improve the specialty’s understanding of the diversity of practicing Emergency Medicine (EM) physicians;
• Advance research about the practice experience of EM physicians;
• Identify gaps in EM physician diversity representation; and
• Detect potential bias in Board examinations (in addition to current ABEM Bias and Fairness panels).

Categories include gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity. ABEM-certified physicians will be asked to update their information annually in the ABEM Portal with an easy “no change” option, as appropriate.

Physicians will be able to select “decline to answer” as their answer to any/all demographic questions. The demographic data values were adopted from the collective work of the American Association of Medical Colleges, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and American Medical Association.

>> Have ideas, comments, or feedback? Share them with ABEM here.

Updated June 22, 2022