Synergist - February 2011

At many local section meetings, speakers present the same material given at the national events in more intimate settings, allowing for greater customization and richer discussion.

Also, Diplomates who are local section members will often get further price breaks, making these a great value for a live education event.

6. Claim points for IH committee service.

Diplomates earn CM points by participating on external IH technical and professional committees (Category 2). Many Diplomates, believing their committee work to be insignificant or unrelated to IH, fail to claim CM credit for it.

Committee work of any scope (i.e., anything from local to international) can count for CM credit, as long as the work is IH. For example, service on a statewide ergonomics committee would count for CM points, but serving on a national safety committee would not count.

ABIH places no restrictions on how often the committee meets, how much time is invested, or how much progress is made. As with Category 1, look at the current definitions and rubrics on the ABIH website to determine whether the committee work is IH. If you have any questions, contact ABIH.

7. Publish IH papers (Category 3).

Category 3 (Publication of IH Papers) is not limited to publications in peer-reviewed professional journals, trade magazines and books. Many other types of publications are also eligible for CM points for both the primary and contributing authors (e.g., association guidelines, case studies and even patents).

Non-peer-reviewed articles have additional specifications—see the ABIH certification maintenance worksheet at www.abih.org/ documents/ index.html—but no restrictions on how or where the information is published (as long as it’s to an external audience and part of an established publication or subscription series). For example, a technical article in a local section newsletter might qualify for CM points. Some non-peer reviewed articles are not acceptable, so check with ABIH before claiming these points on a CM worksheet.

8. Teach or present (Category 5).

Teaching or presenting is not limited to audiences of eager IH students. As long as it’s not part of a person’s normal job, IH teaching to any audience is eligible, even to non-professionals (e.g., high school students or city council members).

Diplomates often get many opportunities to instruct someone or some group on IH. Even volunteers at the AIHce mock meth lab have received CM points for teaching.

Another often overlooked way of earning CM points is presenting a peer-reviewed paper at a national or international conference. The primary presenter receives 1 CM point, and all coauthors receive 0.5 CM points (and the coauthor does not have to be a presenter).

9. Keep in mind the “other” ways (Category 7). This category was created to capture the activities that didn’t logically fit elsewhere. Here are a few free methods to earn CM points:

The entire list of approved activities is available at www.abih.org/documents/documents/Category7.pdf.

10. Take the exam.

The least popular way to earn CM points is to retake the ABIH Comprehensive Examination; however, from a cost standpoint, it’s one of the cheapest ways to recertify ($350 exam fee/40 CM pts = $8.75/pt). Many of you are surely thinking, “It’s not the money, it’s the preparation time.” You’re absolutely right: unless you’re a walking IH Wikipedia, you’ll probably spend 200– 300 hours preparing. The risk with this strategy, of course, is failing the exam. Nevertheless, there are a surprising number of Diplomates who choose this route each CM cycle.

Tracy Parsons, CIH, is the administrative program manager at ABIH. For more information, contact Tracy at (517) 321-2638 ext. 15 or tparsons@abih.org.