The American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) was organized in 1937 and received recognition as a subsidiary of the American Board of Surgery (ABS) in 1938. It is one of the 24 specialty boards recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). The purpose of the ABPS is to “promote safe, ethical, efficacious plastic surgery to the public by maintaining high standards for the education, examination and certification of plastic surgeons as specialists and subspecialists.”

The ABPS has 6,499 certified members.

Membership within the ABPS is limited to those surgeons majoring in the field of plastic surgery and who conform to the ABPS Code of Ethics. Surgeons certified by the ABPS have graduated from an accredited medical school and have completed at least five years of additional training as a resident surgeon, including a minimum three-year residency in an accredited general surgery program and a minimum two-year residency in plastic surgery. In order to be certified by the ABPS, doctors must successfully complete comprehensive written and oral exams. Plastic surgeons certified by the ABPS are listed in the Official ABMS Directory of Board Certified Medical Specialists.

An interesting fact we ran across in the Jauary, 2003 Annual Newsletter to Diplomants (Adobe Acrobat .pdf file) is that in 2002, 23.1% of candidates failed the written examination and 13.5% failed the oral examination.

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