What is CertLink?

As part of your Continuing Certification (CC) program requirements for ABPath you must fulfill the ABPath CertLink requirements.

CertLink is an online assessment given through your PATHway account and fulfills the assessment portion of your CC program requirements. CertLink is also longitudinal - it tests your knowledge continuously over time.

CertLink replaces the examination required every 10 years as part of the assessment requirement of your continuing certification.

The main requirement of CertLink is that you answer the questions assigned to you in your account every 3 months.

How does CertLink work?

There are participation and performance requirements for completing CertLink.

You must complete both sets of requirements to fulfill your CertLink requirement and the assessment requirement of the CC program.

Participation Requirement

To fulfill the ABPCL participation requirement you must:

1. Design your custom assessment

• You can review the 30 topics areas here and design your assessment twice a year, at the beginning and middle of the year
• Core content is decided by the ABP but you can change the percentage of elective topic areas included in your assessments

2. Answer the 15-25 CertLink questions assigned every 3 months

• Use any resources available to them while answering a question other than talking to another person.
• Read the critique after answering a question.

Performance Requirement

To fulfill the performance requirement of the CC program requirements you must achieve and maintain a standard of 60% accuracy or greater cumulative over four years.

The performance decision is based on total CertLink participation not per quarter and takes into consideration whether your knowledge held at the beginning of your assessment is maintained and whether questions that you answered incorrectly were later answered correctly.

CME Credit

You can claim up to 5 credits of CME per year for completing your CertLink questions every quarter (1.25 credits per quarter).

You can learn how to claim your credit here.

Earning your other CME

As you can only earn up to 5 credits of CME for completing your CertLink requirements you will still need to earn another 65 CME credits to fulfill your Continuing Certification program requirements.

There are many options for activities that earn CME credits, both live and online. Time and cost are important considerations when choosing an activity. If you are looking for a streamlined way to solve your ABPath credit requirements year-over-year, you might want to check out Orbit Pathology. It allows you to earn all of your ABPath-required credits by reading eligible journal abstracts and articles conveniently on your desktop, iPhone, or iPad.

Questions? We're glad to help. Email support@orbitcme.com