Note to Editors: The Derrick T. Vail Award will be presented during the American Board of Medical Specialties Assembly Meeting, September 17 and 18, 2007. The event features a poster session by ABMS Member Boards on their Maintenance of Certification program implementation progress. Contact Lori Boukas to arrange interviews with ABMS leaders or award recipient.

EVANSTON, Ill. - September 5, 2007 - David L. Nahrwold, MD, has been selected to receive the first Derrick T. Vail Award given by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS).
The Derrick T. Vail Award was created in 2006 to recognize extraordinary national or international contributions to the broad field of medical specialty education, evaluation or certification, including ABMS Maintenance of Certification® (MOC). The award is named for Derrick T. Vail Sr., considered the founder of the specialty board movement.

Regarded as the architect of MOC, Dr. Nahrwold recognized that initial certification by an ABMS board, while necessary to assure the public that a specialist could provide quality medical care, was insufficient to assure the public that certified specialists maintained the qualifications necessary to continue to provide high quality medical care throughout the entire span of their professional lives.

Dr. Nahrwold was first appointed as a representative to the American Board of Medical Specialties by the American Board of Surgery in 1991.  He was almost immediately appointed to the Committee on Certification, Subcertification and Recertification (COCERT) in 1991 and served as Chair of COCERT from 1994 to 1997.  Dr. Nahrwold also served on the ABMS Database Advisory Committee, was an ABMS representative to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and elected a Member-At-Large of the ABMS Executive Committee. In 2000, he was elected Vice President of ABMS and was inaugurated as President in March 2002.

Under his leadership of the ABMS Task Force on Competence, the ABMS Member Boards came together to develop plans for the implementation of a system of continuing evaluation of the competencies deemed necessary for quality medical practice. Eventually named Maintenance of Certification, or MOC, this system was destined to lay the foundation for improving patient safety, raising the quality of medical care and documenting improvement for other accrediting agencies and organizations.

Dr. Nahrwold has also been instrumental in establishing important liaisons and alliances with many other organizations, most notably the ACCME, ACGME, The Joint Commission, NQF, CMSS and the FSMB to spread the model of MOC as an example of medical professionalism.

“I have had the pleasure of working with David Nahrwold for many years and have witnessed his dedication, participation and leadership skills on numerous ABMS task forces and committees and, most notably, as ABMS President,” said Stephen, H. Miller, MD, MPH, President and CEO of ABMS. “David’s accomplishments, style for consensus building, his professionalism and absolute commitment to his work have always been readily obvious and exemplary. As the “Father of MOC” we think it’s highly appropriate that we selected him as our first recipient of the Derrick T. Vail Award.”

About ABMS
The American Board of Medical Specialties is the preeminent medical organization overseeing physician certification in the United States. It assists its 24 Member Boards in their efforts to develop and implement educational and professional standards for the evaluation and certification of physician specialists. ABMS Member Boards provide physician certification information to ABMS for its certification verification service programs. ABMS is recognized by the key healthcare credentialing accreditation entities as a primary equivalent source of board certification data for medical specialists. Visit www.abms.org or call (847) 491-9091.