The ABR is an independent, not-for-profit organization and is one of 24 national medical specialty boards that make up the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Through ABMS, the boards work together to establish common standards for physicians to achieve and maintain board certification. The boards were founded by their respective specialties to protect the public by assessing and certifying doctors who meet specific educational, training, and professional requirements. For more information about ABMS, visit www.abms.org.In his 1932 presidential address to the American College of Radiology (ACR), Dr. Arthur C. Christie, a Washington, DC, radiologist, stated the desirability of creating an organization—a new specialty board—to provide examinations for certifying physicians as specialists in the discipline of radiology. It would be called the American Board of Radiology.A short time after his speech to the ACR, Dr. Christie repeated his proposal at a session of the American Medical Association (AMA) Section on Radiology in June 1933. It was received favorably. After two years of discussion among representatives of the four major national radiology societies (American Roentgen Ray Society, Radiological Society of North America, American Radium Society, and American College of Radiology), the ABR was incorporated in January 1934 in Washington, D.C. The AMA Section on Radiology was the fifth sponsor.At the time of the ABR’s founding, bylaws were adopted and resolutions were established to ensure the ABR’s proper functioning. The primary charge of the Board was to provide examinations and certify physicians who sought recognition as radiologists. The Board found it necessary to define residency training requirements, which led it to co-sponsor residency review committees for diagnostic radiology and radiation oncology. In 1947, the Board also began to examine and certify candidates for recognition as radiologic physicists.Since 1934, the field of radiology has expanded dramatically. To allow physicians to “acquire and maintain” the appropriate knowledge and skills for their practice domains, radiation oncology and diagnostic radiology developed separate training programs, and both lengthened residencies to four years. Medical physics, recognized as important from the outset, continues to play a critical role in the education of physician and physicist candidates for ABR certification. In 2012, the ABMS approved the Interventional Radiology/Diagnostic Radiology (IR/DR) primary certificate to recognize IR as a unique medical specialty.New sponsors, including the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the Association of University Radiologists, and the Society for Interventional Radiology were added over the years (see links to sponsors). As the field of radiology has developed, various certificates also have been added and deleted to accommodate the changes in practice and the adoption of new technology (see certificate information).To ensure that its diplomates keep pace with ongoing dramatic changes in the knowledge, skill, and understanding essential to practice, the ABR began to issue time-limited certificates in 1994 (for radiation oncology) and completed the transition to offering only time-limited certificates in 2002 (see Maintenance of Certification). In addition, in 2015 the ABR completed the process of phasing out its initial qualifying "written" and oral diagnostic radiology examinations and implementing new computer-based diagnostic radiology initial certification exams, known as the Core and Certifying examinations.In addition to the ABMS, the ABR maintains open working relationships with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the Residency Review Committees for Diagnostic Radiology, Interventional Radiology, and Radiation Oncology. The Board continues active interaction with its sponsoring organizations, other medical specialty boards, specialty societies, medical societies, residency program directors, chairmen of hospital departments, diplomates of this board, and the entire radiologic community.