Essential Information

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The Promise

This certification is and will be a source of pride for its fellows
as it enhances confidence among employers, peers and patients alike
that the fellow has demonstrated his or her competence in an
exam that is at par with the best in the world

Page Contents

1. Introduction
2. Eligibility
3. Fellowship
4. Application process
5. Examination Format
a. MCQs
b. Report Writing
c. OSCE
6. Pre exam Coaching
7. Topic-wise distribution of questions
8. Candidate Presentation
9. Ownership
10. Who contributes questions?
11. Passing grades
12. Fellow to Faculty Pathway
13. Certificate
14. Fee
15. Schedule
16. Honorary Fellow

Introduction

The Asian Nuclear Medicine Board Certificate demonstrates that the candidate’s knowledge and ability in Nuclear Medicine are up to the Asian standards. The Asian quality recognition does not replace or supersede local qualifications and might not entitle the holder to seek a higher position than he/she already has. The fellows are expected to assume a leadership role in their national and international fora, maintain communication with their peer fellows and emerge as professionals who are the best around.

Eligibility

This exam was initially designed for young nuclear medicine physicians and for the first two years only physicians younger than 45 years were accepted. There was however a demand by the Asian Nuclear Medicine Community to accept those who were over 45 years. Now nuclear medicine physicians of any age can apply and will be accepted for the exam. All candidates should have at least 5-years experience in nuclear medicine at the time of sitting the exam. This can be in a training environment or be just working in a nuclear medicine department

The Pakistan Medical Council has recognized the FANMB as an additional qualification in nuclear medicine.

Fellowship

The fellows might get the ARCCNM, KSNM fellowship or the Tomio Inoue award. Both awards are identical in terms of the amount. This is an administrative differentiation The number of candidates varies from 25 to 45. There is no limit of the number of candidates from any one country The fellowship amount varies from year to year and depends upon available funds and international exchange rates. This has ranged from 500-1000 US Dollars.

Application process:

Download the application form the website.
Attach the following documents:
(All documents must be in English or be accompanied by an English translation certified to be a true copy by departmental head, head of hospital, training supervisor or a notary public.)

CV with experience list and publication list (**)
Copy of the bio pages of the passport
Two photographs (hard copies to be brought along in case these are needed):
- 1 x passport size photograph
- 1 x smaller copy (2x2cm)
Copy of current national medical council registration
A letter of recommendation from any one of the following:
- ANMB faculty
- AOSNM faculty,
- AOFNMB executive member or member of the
- ARCCNM executive body,
- President of the national nuclear medicine society or
- Director of a Nuclear Medicine Centre where the candidate is or has been working.
Abstract of the poster that the candidate is making. The abstract will be a deciding factor for acceptance and fellowship award, based on the novelty, experimental design, practical applicability and usefulness of the study.
A certificate of English language comprehension and capability to write a report in English. The candidate can self-certify.
The candidates, as part of their eligibility criteria, need to go through the teaching cases and quizzes available at the link https://www.anmboard.org/teaching-cases-and-quiz/. Please self-certify by ticking the box in the application form.
The candidates also need to go through the “Reporting in Nuclear Medicine” available at and self-certify that they have gone through all of the chapters available.https://www.anmboard.org/books/

Please understand that all of the above requirements need to be met before the applications can be processed for acceptance.

The relevant dates of opening of the application process, last date of application receipt and the examination dates and venue will be announced on the website. After vetting the applications and assessing the abstracts, the ANMB committee will notify those eligible to sit for the exam.

Examination Format

There are three components of the exam.

MCQs:
- There will be 120 MCQs. Each question stem will have 4 possible answers, only one of these answers is correct.
- These MCQs will need to be attempted in 2 hours.
- Questions with wrong answers, exceptions, etc. will generally not be asked.
- There is no negative marking.
Report writing:
- Two scans will be given to each candidate, the candidate must select one and write a report on the given reporting sheet. 20 minutes will be given for the report writing session.
- A general feedback on the quality of reporting will be given later that day and individualized feedback sent by email later.
OSCE:
- Each candidate will be examined on 4 stations, each station will display one or two cases and the candidate will need to select one case.
- The case will be in a PowerPoint format on a laptop and the candidate will be able to go back one page but not forward unless faculty allows this
- Questions will be already written on the presentation, these would have been approved by consensus by all the faculty.
- Each question has a suggested answer also approved by the faculty.
- Each question has a score
- The candidate will be examined at each station for 8 minutes.

It is understood that all candidates might not have the same skills when it comes to understanding spoken English and articulating their answers in the time given. Those candidates who fail the OSCE section will be re-examined by a different faculty, usually with an interpreter available. Those who pass will still be considered pass for the whole exam. Those who fail the retake will fail the whole exam and will need to apply again if they wish.

Pre-Exam Coaching:

The faculty and fellows of the ANMB have created a 3 hour coaching session this will be held on the day before the exam, before the candidate presentation.

Topic-wise distribution of questions

This is a tentative distribution of questions according to topics. The exact number of questions would vary.

Topic

Questions

Cross sectional Anatomy (CT/ SPECT-CT/PET-CT)

Basic Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear Cardiology

Nuclear Neurology

Genitourinary

Gastroenterology and hepatobiliary nuclear medicine

Infection imaging

Pulmonary Nuclear Medicine

Paediatric Nuclear Medicine

PET and Oncology

Thyroid and Endocrine

Therapy

Skeletal system

Current Reading (Last year’s review articles, esp in JNM)

Sentinel Nodes

Biostastics

Last year’s questions + elearning modules+ quiz and teaching cases on the website

Total

120 Candidate Presentation:

As a pre-requisite to be allowed to sit the exam, all candidates are required to bring with them a 36 x 24 inch poster for presentation at the international congress that happens on the occasion of the exam.

Ownership

The Asian Nuclear Medicine Board is designed to be eventually managed and run by fellows and all fellows are urged to participate as faculty when invited.

Young fellows already contribute questions, participate in the examination process, have preference in projects that are initiated by the ARCCNM and AOFNMB and conduct most of the pre-conference coaching session.

Who contributes questions?

All fellows and faculty are expected to contribute to the question pool every year for selecting what will be asked during the exam.

As a general guideline:

10-15 questions should be sent. Most should have an image with questions based on this.

No negative questions (e.g. What is false, untrue, least likely, does not happen etc) should be included unless such a question is of very high quality.

One stem should have 4 answers with only ONE correct answer .

1-2 case scenarios in the form of a PowerPoint presentation should also be sent

Passing Grades

The passing grade threshold is 70% of the top three merit numbers.

Fellow-to-Faculty Pathway:

The board is designed to be eventually managed and run by the fellows and there is a well defined pathway from a fellow to a faculty member. The requirements are:

For the first three positions, invitation to be part of faculty is automatically sent after 5 years of graduation.
For all other positions fellows who have contributed questions to the exam for five consecutive years are invited to a faculty position. At the time of writing this for the website, fellows from session 1 and 2 are already in the faculty.

Certificate

Candidates who pass the examination will be awarded certificate of FANMB (Fellow of Asian Nuclear Medicine Board) at the National Delegate Assembly of ARCCNM.

Fee

There is no examination fee.

Schedule

Upon successful completion of the examination the candidates will be awarded with a Fellowship of the ANMB abbreviated as FANMB

Honorary Fellow of the Asian Nuclear Medicine Board

As with all honorary fellowships, this award goes to recognize a lifetime of service to the field.
The fellow can be a nuclear medicine physician or scientist, still working or might have retired but must have demonstrated passion for the specialty and made an impact on the practice, development and/or education of nuclear medicine natonally/internatonally.
This award should go to a person who is very senior in the national nuclear medicine field and already very accomplished inasmuch that the fellowship will not serve to advance his career.
The award of this honorary fellowship should be a matter of prestige for the nominee as well the ANMB so the personality must be non controversial and must not have any significant political or professional opposition nationally or internationally