When is “board-certified” not board-certified?

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Perhaps when running for office?

U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul says he is a “board-certified” ophthalmologist — even though the national clearinghouse for such certifications says he hasnt been for the past five years.   Rand Paul, who practices in Bowling Green, says he is certified by the National Board of Ophthalmology, a group that he incorporated in 1999 and that he heads.  But that entity is not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, which works with the American Medical Association to approve such specialty boards.

via Rand Pauls ophthalmology certification not recognized by national clearinghouse | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal.

Frankly, I don’t care whether Rand Paul is board-certified or not.  Political leanings aside, I would have no problem with a physician running for office who wasn’t board-certified.  If he were operating on my eyeballs, yes, I’d be concerned; running for office, not so much.  But as a (legitimately) board-certified physician, I get a little cheesed when a physician claims to be board-certified when he is not, or at least not by the organization that is implied by the phrase “board-certified”.

This article states that Paul created the National Board of Ophthalmology, presumably the “board” that ”certified” him, out of frustration with the American Board of Ophthalmology’s requirements that younger physicians get re-certified every ten years.  It’s not an uncommon sentiment.  I had to re-certify last year; meanwhile a number of doctors with whom I work haven’t sat for a board exam since 1973 yet still maintain their certification.  It doesn’t seem right, I agree.  But the way I see it, my options were to not have board certification out of protest, or suck it up and take the exam.  I chose the latter.  I respect anyone’s decision to choose the other path, as long as they don’t present themselves as having done otherwise.  Which, sadly, does not appear to be the case here.

The issue is not so much ability as it is integrity.  Mr. Paul is quite possibly a fine ophthalmologist; I have no way of knowing for sure.  But to claim “board certification” based on a board of his own making when patients and employers alike rely on board certification to make important decisions seems a little troubling to me.