2008-2009 Annual Report to Stakeholders
December 15, 2009
The American Chiropractic Neurology Board, Inc. (ACNB) would like to update you on the various changes and the progress made by the ACNB throughout the year as we complete the fiscal year 2008-2009.
Your Board of Directors remains unchanged as listed below:
John Donofrio, D.C., DABCN, President
Sergio Azzolino, D.C., DACNB, Vice-President
Gail Henry, D.C., DABCN, DACNB, Secretary
Julia Allen, D.C., DACNB, Interim Treasurer
Angelo Quaranta, Public Member
Election results confirmed John Donofrio as continuing on the Board.
Lucinda Harman, R.N., Ph.D. agreed to continue as the Executive Director and Standards Compliance Administrator.
The first piece of exciting news is the new format for the administration of the ACNB Board examination. This past April 2009, the written examination was administered worldwide on computers. This allowed the 50 candidates from around the world to take the exam on their own continents, if not in their own countries. The practical exam was given in five locations: Reading, PA, San Francisco, CA, Houston, TX, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Melbourne, Australia. Please see the examination statistics below. We continue to modify our examinations at the rate of 20% per year. In other words, we replace 20% the items and cases annually. We are requesting your help with the databank development of cases, clinical scenarios and questions. You will receive continuing education credits for your submissions. If you are interested in helping, please contact Dr. Lucinda Harman, at harmanl@me.com. She will be able to assist you in learning how to submit the appropriate format of cases and questions. Instead of resembling a textbook of neurological information, the test now resembles a day or week in a chiropractic neurologist’s office. We continue to add to the databank with cases from your offices. In that way, we can assure that the test represents the actual practice of Chiropractic Neurology.
This year, we are pleased to welcome 39 new Diplomates. The written and the practical exams, once again, showed a high degree of congruence. Fifty (50) candidates took the written examination and forty (40) passed for a passing rate of 80%. Forty-eight (48) candidates took the practical exam and forty-one (41) passed for a passing rate of 86%.
Thus, the final statistics for the American Chiropractic Neurology Board, Inc. as of September 30, 2009, are as follows:
Number ever Certified = 780
Number Certified under The DACNB examination = 461
Number Current = 370 with an additional 8 having a disability waiver
Taking the April Written Examination = 50
Current Passing the April Written Examination = 41
Current Passing Percentage for April for the Written Test = 82.00%
Taking the April Practical Examination = 49
Passing the April Practical Examination = 42
Current Passing Percentage for April for the Practical Test = 86.7%
New Diplomates (those passing both Written and Practical Examinations in April) = 39
This year the ACNB will continue the contract with Schroeder Measurement Technologies (SMT) to administer the written test worldwide. The practical exam will again be administered in Reading, PA, Houston, TX, San Francisco, CA, Amsterdam, Netherlands and either Brisbane, Australia. The feedback from the people who took the test this year was very positive about computer administration versus paper pencil administration and people liked not having to travel so far to take the test. As with any new process, there were some difficulties, but these have been addressed and the exam should run very smoothly in 2010.
The second piece of exciting news is that the ACNB received the renewal of accreditation from the National Commission of Certifying Agencies (NCCA). This Commission assures that agencies it accredits meet the national standards for organization, job analysis, test construction, test administration, cut score setting, score reporting and recertification. The ACNB is accredited until August of 2014. Congratulations and thank each of you for your hard work in helping to make this a reality! The NCCA is affiliated with the National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA). This year, NOCA changed its name to the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE) in order to eliminate the appearance that it only serves members in the United States. All members were given a vote and this became the new name. As a member organization, we are allowed to use the ICE logo and link it to our website. Their new web address is: http://www.credentialingexcellence.org/ . Again, thank you all for your work in making the ACNB a lead organization in chiropractic specialization.
During the upcoming year, you will be asked to participate in several small job analysis surveys to discover what types of cases you see in your office, what knowledge and skills you need to treat these patients and what modalities you use in the assessment and treatment. These job analysis surveys will direct how we develop the new items on the examinations. We will be using Survey Monkey and will send you a blast email to let you know a survey is posted. You will be given the ID and password to go onto Survey Monkey and answer the questions.
Please see the next page to review the financial statement for the Fiscal Year 2008-2009. We maintained lower costs this year with the examination administration distributed over various sites and the cost of examination development was lower this year, therefore, we have a positive bottom line for 2008-2009. Unfortunately, as the stock market dropped, the money market account did not garner as much interest as it did in 2007-2008 Fiscal Year. We have left the money in the account in hopes that the market will improve this coming year. Remember, it is your recertification fee that maintains your Board and provides the operating dollars to securely manage the work.
I remain at your service,
John Donofrio, D.C., D.A.B.C.N.,
President
Profit & Loss - October 2008 through September 2009 [pdf]
Balance Sheet Standard – October 2008 through September 2009 [pdf]