General Questions about Nuclear Cardiology, Certification and the CBNC
- What is Nuclear Cardiology?
- What is certification and what is its purpose?
- What is the address of the CBNC?
- How should I notify CBNC of an address change?
- How can I become grandfathered ?
Nuclear Cardiology is a specialty of cardiology that uses radioisotopes for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
What is certification and what is its purpose?Certification provides practice-based standards against which members of the profession can be assessed. The purposes of the CBNC Certification Program are as follows:
- to establish the domain of the practice of Nuclear Cardiology for certification;
- to assess the level of knowledge demonstrated by Nuclear Cardiology specialists in a valid manner;
- to encourage professional growth in, and enhance the quality of, the practice of Nuclear Cardiology;
- to recognize formally individuals who meet the requirements set by CBNC; and
- to serve the public by encouraging quality patient care in the practice of Nuclear Cardiology.
What is the address of the CBNC?
1401 Rockville Pike, Ste. 600
Rockville, MD 20852
USA
Telelephone: +240.631.8151 Fax: +301.424.0875 Email: CBNC@inteleos.org
How should I notify CBNC of an address change?Change your contact information either by logging in to your MY APCA online account, detailed instructions can be found here. Alternatively, scan your SIGNED request to change your address and include it as an attachment and email it to CBNC@inteleos.org. Please include changes in emails, phone/fax and cell numbers too. Candidates should inform CBNC of address changes so that important correspondence is received at the correct address (e.g. certificates). Those who have passed the CBNC examination should inform CBNC of address changes so the Verify Certification searchable database lists individuals in the correct location.
How can I become grandfathered?There are two understandings of the term “grandfathering” that have application to CBNC: 1) certification of an individual who did not sit for the exam and 2) exempting individuals who have certified from recertifying. Following are explanations of CBNC grandfathering policy.
- CBNC’s strict grandfathering policy allows only individuals who have had significant and global oversight of exam question writing, reviews and revisions exam form development and exam form beta testing to be eligible for grandfathering consideration. This is simply because they’ve seen so much of the test forms. In addition, the individual must meet all of the eligibility requirements to sit for the the exam. CBNC endeavors not to use individuals within three years of their recertification requirement, but on occasion the Board must do so. When this does happen, the individuals are certified only for a 10 year period and not indefinitely. Under this policy only 5-6 individuals have been grandfathered in the last decade.
- When the CBNC exam was initially offered in 1996, there was no recertification requirements. This was true of many medical boards at that time. Although these individuals cannot be obligated to recertify under requirements that came after their certification, CBNC has encouraged them to recertify voluntarily. All Diplomates from 1997 through present have been certified for a ten year period, which requires recertification in order to maintain their certified status.