ST. LOUIS—Registration is open for the next American Board of Optometry Board Certification exam period for the month of July 2015, one of two months during the year when the exam is offered. (The exam also is offered in January.) Interested optometrists can take the exam at any Prometric Testing Center around the U.S. as well as at international locations. There are currently 2,809 Diplomates who have successfully passed the exam and 3,014 active candidates who have begun the qualification process but haven’t taken the exam yet.

Certified by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies and approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the voluntary American Board of Optometry board certification examination and program are for optometrists who graduated from a school or college of optometry accredited by the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education; (ACOE) who meet “residency or equivalent” requirements to qualify for the exam and who hold an active license to practice therapeutic optometry in a U.S. state, commonwealth or territory.

There have been some important updates to the program in recent months, an American Board of Optometry spokesperson told VMail. “Candidates now earn 50 exam qualification points for an ACOE-accredited residency completed more than 10 years ago and five exam qualification points for each year of active clinical practice in the previous 10 years (up to 50 points). Candidates recently completing an ACOE-accredited residency can qualify automatically for the exam and for a reduced exam fee of $1,000 if the residency was completed in the past year,” the spokesperson told VMail.

Candidates take a 160-question general examination then answer 40 questions in each of two areas of emphasis that they have selected. The six available areas of emphasis are Additional General Practice, Contact Lenses, Pediatrics/Binocular Vision/Vision Therapy, Ocular Disease Anterior, Ocular Disease Posterior, and Vision Rehabilitation/Low Vision/Neuro-Ophthalmic Rehabilitation. The exam’s passing rate has been 93 percent.

The American Board of Optometry also released a collection of interviews with five optometrists who are board certified, discussing what certification has meant to them and their careers, how it benefits patients, and what advice they would give to others about taking the exam. The ODs interviewed are Paul Karpecki, OD, FAAO; Lillian Kalaczinski, OD; Stephen Montaquila, OD; Essence Robinson, OD, FAAO; and Eugene Shifrin, OD.

For further information, click here to read about a tri-state health system that requires board certification for its 20+ optometrists.