2012 Ends an Era

The 20th-century medical scene was very different from the freewheeling 19th century in which patients were subjected to a mixture of science and charlatanism from medical practitioners with widely varying credentials and training. The various state medical licensure boards began to exert more authority and work together in the Federation of State Medical Boards. The Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Medical Association (AMA) published in 1914 the first list of approved internships in the United States, the American Board of Ophthalmology provided in 1916 the first board certification of a medical specialty, and in 1920 the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals appointed committees in each medical specialty to determine what training was necessary to qualify as an expert in that specialty field. In 1934, the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the American Neurological Association (ANA), and the Section on Nervous and Mental Disease of the American Medical Association joined in forming the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) with the goal of establishing examinations for certification in psychiatry and neurology. The first examinations by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology were held in June 1935 at the Philadelphia General Hospital. Changes over the years included adding in 1959 a certifying examination in the subspecialty of child psychiatry and adding in 1969 certification in ‘‘neurology with special competence in child neurology’’ (terminology changed to ‘‘neurology with special qualification in child neurology’’ in 1985). As the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology looked toward the 21st century, it determined that the Part II oral examinations should be replaced with the documentation of specific resident competencies during training and a redesigned computerized certification examination. Thus, the Part II oral examinations were phased out except for those individuals still qualified through their training in the older system prior to the new requirements. In September 2012, neurology examiners congregated in Indianapolis, Indiana, to perform the last of these Part II examinations and on the morning of Saturday, September 22, 2012, the examinations were held at Goodman Hall of Indiana University Health. The examiners for the child neurology portion of the examinations are listed in Tables 1 and 2. The team led by Director Patricia Crumrine performed the patient examination sessions and the team led by Director Ann Tilton (Figure 1) performed the vignette case examination sessions. The very last child neurology session, ending at 12:10 PM, was the vignette case examination of one candidate conducted in 20-minute periods in order by John Bodensteiner, Robert Rust, and Roger Brumback (a future trivia game answer to ‘‘Who was the last child neurology Part II examiner?’’). Much has been written about the various changes in the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology over the nearly 8 decades since its founding. Let us hope that the American