The health care landscape is shifting rapidly, and it is more evident in the care of older adults. By 2030, one in five Americans will be over 65, and most will be living with multiple chronic conditions. Yet the health care system—still optimized for single-disease management—is not keeping pace in geriatric medicine.
According Mayo Clinic Proceedings (2024), managing chronic disease in older adults requires more than following traditional guidelines. It demands a shift in mindset: from “what’s the matter with… Click to Read More
The Hell of Waiting for Board Results – Use This Mindset to Avoid Driving Yourself Crazy
Nearly every board exam candidate feels unnerved by their exam. Many physicians feel despondent, remembering how many questions they were either ‘clueless’ or ‘really unsure’ about. This experience of deep uncertainty continues for the entire period of waiting, often 4 to 6 weeks, until results arrive.
The reason for this despondency is that a large – usually the largest – percentage of questions on the exam are those that the candidate is less than 100% certain of having gotten right.… Click to Read More
Improving Care for an Aging Population: How a Geriatric Medicine Board Review Helps Physicians Apply Core Principles in Practice
The US population is aging rapidly, which presents an additional challenge for primary care physicians as they struggle to keep up with ever-growing healthcare needs. A major demographic shift is underway, with one in five Americans projected to be over the age of 65 by 2030.
This scenario has become a pressing reality for general internists and family physicians as they deal with an influx of older patients in healthcare settings. However, the current ratio of board-certified geriatric medicine physicians… Click to Read More
How to Study for Medical Board Exams: Prioritize “the Big and the Bad” for Smarter Board Review
No matter how much time you have remaining to prepare for your boards, you must still prioritize certain exam topics over others. This is true because even if you go through ALL the material once or even twice during your board review, there will always remain topics that you’ll perform worse on during your practice tests.
How do you know which topics you’re weaker on as you’re progressing through your studies? If you took the exam previously and failed, you… Click to Read More
EXACT Board Prep Accelerator Delivers Custom Board Success — Here’s How
EXACT is a proprietary algorithm that customizes a study program for each learner. The learner completes a board-reflective practice test and EXACT converts the results into a personalized board prep review schedule and study plan so learners pass on their first try
At American Physician Institute (API), a leading medical education and certification solutions provider, we offer EXACT — a FREE game-changing board prep program for medical professionals.
API’s proprietary EXACT algorithm powers the program, which provides individuals with personalized… Click to Read More
Meeting the DEA Mate Act Training Requirement for Medical Professionals
What Is the 2023 DEA MATE ACT?
The DEA MATE (Medication Access and Treatment Expansion) Act, enacted in June 2023 as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, is an attempt to address the opioid epidemic through addiction medication access and physician training. This legislation mandates continuing medical education for medical practitioners registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Notably, it imposes a one-time eight-hour training requirement focused on the treatment and management of patients with opioid or other substance use… Click to Read More
Two Pathways to Addiction Medicine Board Certification
From now until the end of 2025, the American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) offers two ways for physicians to become board-certified Addiction Medicine specialists – the “traditional certification pathway” and the “clinical practice pathway.”
The ABPM recognizes physicians working in the field of addictions have diverse medical specialty training, and therefore, the medical specialty board offers these two certification pathways in Addiction Medicine. While the “traditional” pathway requires completion of an accredited fellowship, the “practice pathway” allows physicians to… Click to Read More
Should I Maintain My Board Certification for as Long as I Practice?
My answer for myself is: Yes, I would always maintain my board certification for as long as I see patients. I would not practice with lapsed board certification. Here I present my reason – yes, I have only one reason to remain board certified. This medical-legal reason is relevant to and resonates with me. It may or may not be relevant or resonate with you, but I think it’s good for you to at least be aware of it as… Click to Read More
Life after Residency or Fellowship: Choosing the Right Type of Medical Practice
Every graduating resident or fellow must make the decision whether to join a private practice, open a solo practice, or be employed by a hospital or by a private equity practice. Although these represent four types of medical practice models in which the majority of physicians work, it comes down to whether you want to be your own boss or have a boss.
This clearly oversimplifies the decision-making process. There are many factors to consider when making deciding what type… Click to Read More
USMLE Step 3 Content: What’s on the Exam?
Prepping for your USMLE Step 3 exam? Try 200 free USMLE Step 3 practice questions from The Pass Machine to help get your USMLE prep on track.
The USMLE Step 3 exam is the final examination first-year residents need to pass to practice medicine independently. USMLE Step 3 content assesses a practitioner’s knowledge of advanced clinical medicine and is vastly different from the other two USMLE examinations, so interns should know what to expect and how to prepare to face… Click to Read More
The USMLE Step 2 CK Score
Prepping for your USMLE Step 2 exam? Try 200 free USMLE Step 2 CK practice questions from The Pass Machine to help get your USMLE prep on track.
Each United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step exam is scored differently. Understanding what your USMLE Step 2 score means and how it is calculated can help you prepare in a more focused way.
Understanding your USMLE Step 2 CK score
Scores for the USMLE Step 2 exam range from 1 to… Click to Read More
How to Study for USMLE Step 2: 6 Tips for Success
Prepping for your USMLE Step 2 exam? Try 200 free USMLE Step 2 CK practice questions from The Pass Machine to help get your USMLE prep on track.
Studying for USMLE Step 2
Now that USMLE Step 1 is a pass/fail exam, many residency programs will put greater importance on your USMLE Step 2 CK score. Earning a high score on this national board exam will help set you apart from other students and applicants. This article will focus on… Click to Read More
What You Need to Know About Updates to the Step 2 CK Exam
January 2022: Change to Step 2 CK Passing Standard
In April 2022, the USMLE Management Committee announced a five-point increase in the passing standard for the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) exam. Effective July 1, 2022, the minimum passing score on the three-digit scale rose from 209 to 214. This change resulted from a scheduled review of the exam’s passing standard, a process that typically occurs every three to four years to ensure alignment with current expectations for medical… Click to Read More
A Perfectionism That Will Kill Your Board Exam Performance
This week we completed our 5-Day Psychiatry Board Prep Course in Chicagoland. (It was great to see and speak with so many colleagues there.) At the course, I received several questions from our attendees about what turns out to be a single problem described in different ways – board exam performance. The problem is a manifestation of one type of perfectionism in exam performance. It arises as a feeling of a strong need to get complete and/or definitive information about… Click to Read More
How to Get the Most from Group Study for Board Exams
Preparing for board exams can be done alone or with a partner or study group. (From now on, I’ll write ‘group’ when referring to a group or single partner.) Studying in a group has several pros and cons, which I cover in this article. Depending on the learner, either the pros or the cons of group study can predominate. Thus, group study is not for everyone. For those for whom group study is a net positive, it can be the… Click to Read More
The World’s Biggest USMLE Step 2 CK QBank Now Available
Prepping for your USMLE Step 2 exam? Try 200 free USMLE Step 2 CK practice questions from The Pass Machine to help get your USMLE prep on track.
Our QBank team has been hard at work over the last several months developing, compiling, and vetting our new USMLE Step 2 CK QBank for medical students.
It’s not just any old QBank, though – it’s the world’s largest medical education QBank for the USMLE Step 2 CK exam. It includes 4,200+… Click to Read More
Advice When Waiting for Your Medical Board Exam Results
We’ve had tens of thousands of physicians take our board prep courses and this is what I learned about the weeks waiting for medical board exam results: there is a weak relationship between how you think you did on the exam and whether you passed. Hundreds of times, exam-takers have emailed me feeling terrible about how “horribly” they did, only to find out that they passed.
It’s normal to leave an exam feeling uncertain or discouraged. This occurs because:
Often… Click to Read More
Treatments in Specific Patient Populations for Cardiology
The majority of the questions on cardiology medical board exams are focused on treatment since the reason patients see a cardiologist is to obtain appropriate treatment. The aspects of treatment tested by the specialty board exams include:
Details of particular treatment options
Treatment interventions by disease variant and in specific patient populations
Treatment algorithms
This post aims to understand how to choose the correct treatment for a specific patient population or disease form. The writer of the cardiovascular disease board… Click to Read More
The Hospitalist Lifestyle: A Cause for Early Burnout?
As we move away from the traditional internist and continue to separate the inpatient realm from the outpatient, hospitalist scheduling remains controversial. Through my own job searches, I have seen many scheduling models. Seven on, seven off remains common, but many groups are moving away from this in favor of more lifestyle-friendly schedules. Working seven consecutive days can be exhausting and may lead to early burnout. It also leaves little time for family, exercise, or hobbies outside of work during… Click to Read More
Treatments in Specific Pediatric Patient Populations
Prepping for a Pediatric Board Exam? Get a comprehensive Pediatric Board Review Course from The Pass Machine to get your board prep on track.
Medical board exams include questions in several different areas. including treatments in specific pediatric patient populations. A large percentage of these questions are focused on treatment interventions as an appropriate treatment that a physician is expected to provide to the patients. Three main aspects of treatment are generally tested on the specialty board exams. These include:… Click to Read More




















