The American Board of Orthodontics and specialty certification: the first 50 years.

The growth of specialty practice in the health professions is directly linked to advancements in medical science during the early 1900s. Although these advancements resulted in improved delivery of care, there was not yet a system in place to assure the public, not to mention the medical profession, that someone claiming to be a specialist was indeed qualified. The concept of a specialty board was first proposed in 1908 by Dr Derrick T. Vail in his presidential address to the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology. Soon after this proposal, the Flexner Report, published in 1910, addressed the quality of the nation’s undergraduate medical education. This report influenced all areas of thought concerning medical education as well as the quality and competence of medical training at every level. This influence certainly impacted the development of the specialty boards. The American Ophthalmologic Society recommended the development of an examining board as early as 1915. Soon after, a joint committee from the 3 major organizations representing ophthalmologists drafted a report that was subsequently approved by all 3 groups. The first meeting of the newly formed American Board for Ophthalmic Examinations, the first specialty board, was held on May 8, 1916. The second specialty board, the American Board of Otolaryngology, was founded and incorporated in 1924 and was developed along the same lines. Dr Albert H. Ketcham, the eventual leader of the