Signed, Sealed, Delivered

My ABPN recertification certificate was delivered today. It was maximally inconvenient, because it had to be signed for. It says:

The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Incorporated 1934

Member of the American Board of Medical Specialties

hereby declares

Me, MD

maintained certification in Psychiatry

on February 9, 2015

as a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Ongoing certification is contingent upon meeting the requirements of

Maintenance of Certification

Then it has the signatures, certificate number, and a blurb about certification being contingent on maintaining licensure.

First of all, shouldn't it be, "declares that?"

In the lower left hand corner is the seal of the ABPN:

And in the lower right hand corner is the seal of the ABMS:

I'm not sure how well you can see the ABMS seal, but the cap stone of "Excellence" rests on the three pillars of "Ethics", "Honor", and "Skill".

And the Latin ribbon reads, "Animus Opibusque Parati" or, "Prepared in Mind and Resources," which is, apparently, one of the mottoes of South Carolina. The other is, "Dum Spiro Spero" or, "While I Breathe, I Hope."

What about those images on the ABMS seal? I get the staff of Asclepius on the left, but the oil lamp on the right? Master Google didn't come up with a quick answer for me, but I'm thinking, genie? Maybe the three pillars of excellence are really just the three things the ABMS wishes it had. Or maybe it's that Neti Pot thing you use for nasal irrigation.

I don't know what the link is between the ABMS and South Carolina, but this is probably not the state you want to be linked with right now.

Silliness aside, what do you think of that, "Ongoing certification is contingent upon meeting the requirements of Maintenance of Certification?" Would you hang that on your office wall? I won't. It's like the ABMS wants your patients to think, "Hm, is my doctor still board certified? Maybe I should check." Just another way of intimidating doctors into keeping up with MOC.

The certificate came with yet another advertisement from Jim Henry, Inc., for ordering a frame. I'm so glad I didn't get one. My plan is to put this new piece of card stock away someplace, and remove the little rectangle that states that my certification expires at the end of 2015 from the frame on my present certificate.