ABO resident clinical outcomes study: case complexity as measured by the discrepancy index.

In the fall of 2001, the American Board of Orthodontics (ABO) began a committed discussion of early certification after graduation from a recognized orthodontic training program. The board’s intention was 2-fold: to evaluate the possibility of offering early certification to recent graduates by using cases treated during their residencies, by determining whether resident treatment quality could satisfy current board certification criteria; and to allow orthodontic resident programs to evaluate the efficacy of their clinical training by using a standardized examination. In the summer of 2002, 20 orthodontic programs from across the United States were invited to participate in the ABO’s resident clinical outcomes study (also known as the pilot study). Official agreements between the orthodontic programs and the ABO were executed, and 16 programs committed to the pilot study. Programs participating in the pilot study will evaluate a standardized clinical examination for measuring the outcomes of their clinical orthodontic training. This past summer, the ABO attempted to answer a new question with the pilot study data: how does the complexity, as measured by the ABO discrepancy index (DI), of the pilot study cases treated by orthodontic residents compare with that of cases submitted by practicing orthodontists for the ABO phase III examination?