ABPM Aerospace Medicine continuing certification runs through the Continuing Certification Program (CCP). Each year through 2029 you keep an active unrestricted license, pay the annual fee, attest to 20 CME credits (six relevant to your certification), and answer 30 open-book LAP questions per certificate with no minimum score beyond performing better than chance. The 2026 aerospace medicine questions cover a published subset of the outline: the flight environment, clinical aerospace medicine, operational medicine, and management and administration.
What continuing certification now involves
ABPM's Continuing Certification Program replaced the traditional high-stakes MOC exam with an annual cycle, and diplomates holding time-limited certificates must participate to remain certified.
The American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) created its Continuing Certification Program (CCP) after diplomates asked for something simpler and more meaningful than the traditional, high-stakes Maintenance of Certification (MOC) exam. The program follows the American Board of Medical Specialties' standards for continuing certification.
If you hold a time-limited ABPM certificate, taking part in the CCP is how you stay certified. One rule that surprises some subspecialists: you do not need to maintain a primary board certification to keep an ABPM subspecialty certificate current.
This guide focuses on the aerospace medicine stream. It covers the annual requirements in effect through 2029, how the Longitudinal Assessment Program (LAP) works, the content areas published for 2026, and the fees and deadlines that apply right now.
Your four annual requirements
During Phase 2 of the transition (2025 through 2029), you must keep an active unrestricted license, pay the annual fee, attest to 20 CME credits with at least six relevant to your certification, and answer 30 LAP questions for each active certificate.
ABPM is introducing the CCP in three phases, and Phase 2 governs calendar years 2025 through 2029. In this phase, diplomates have exactly four annual requirements:
The CME attestation is self-directed: you choose which courses are relevant to the ABPM specialties or subspecialties in which you are certified. Starting in 2026, accredited providers can report your credits to ACCME, which transmits them securely to ABPM. To use this route, give the provider your ABPM Board ID, your name, your birth month and day, and your consent to report on your behalf.
You can find your ABPM ID on the dashboard of your Physician Portal account, and you can search for registered activities through CME Passport, ABPM's free CME discovery tool.
- Maintain an active, unrestricted medical license in every US state, US territory, or Canadian province where you are licensed to practice.
- Pay the annual fee through the ABPM Physician Portal.
- Attest to 20 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits earned during the year, with at least six relevant to your ABPM certification.
- Answer 30 LAP questions for each active, time-limited ABPM certificate you hold.
How the aerospace medicine LAP works
You answer 30 specialty-specific open-book questions per certificate each calendar year; there is no minimum score, but you must answer every question and perform better than chance, and each opened question must be submitted within 60 minutes.
ABPM launched an extended LAP pilot on January 7, 2025, as part of Phase 2, and it runs through December 31, 2029. All diplomates with current, time-limited certificates participate in their own specialty or subspecialty; aerospace medicine diplomates are already in the pilot. The only holdout is the HALM specialty, whose pilot begins in 2027.
ABPM describes the LAP as a replacement for the point-in-time MOC exam, designed to be flexible and educational rather than a single high-stakes event. For aerospace medicine, you answer 30 specialty-specific questions per calendar year. If you hold multiple current ABPM certificates, you answer 30 questions for each of them.
The assessment is open book: you may consult textbooks and other resources, consistent with how physicians practice. ABPM sets no minimum passing score, but it expects good-faith participation, which it defines as answering all 30 questions and scoring better than chance, meaning more than 25% correct each year.
Two mechanics protect you from accidental losses. Once you open a question, you must answer it; closing the browser window before submitting marks the response incorrect. The platform also times out after a question has been open for 60 minutes, so answer within that window.
One housekeeping note for 2026: ABPM has flagged that LAP completion through the Learnswell platform may lag behind your Physician Portal display. If a warning triangle appears under requirement four after you finished the 2026 LAP, check your Learnswell account for the current status rather than re-taking anything.
The 2026 aerospace medicine content areas
The 2026 LAP draws from a published subset of the aerospace medicine exam content outline: the flight environment, clinical aerospace medicine, operational aerospace medicine, and management and administration.
Rather than covering the full breadth of the specialty every year, the LAP focuses on a smaller number of content areas, and ABPM publishes which outline sections count for each year. For 2026, the aerospace medicine page lists the sections below, drawn from four top-level areas of the exam content outline.
The practical consequence for your preparation: the subsections listed for 2026 are the year's assessment focus, while outline areas absent from the list are background rather than this year's LAP targets. Build your review around the published sections and confirm the full outline on ABPM's own exam content outline page.
| 2026 LAP area | Published subsections |
|---|---|
| 01 – The flight environment | Theory of flight for fixed and rotary wing; cardiovascular, spatial orientation (including illusions), and visual physiology; microgravity; shock and vibration, radiation, and toxicology; human–machine interface; ground support, remotely piloted vehicles, and escape mechanisms |
| 02 – Clinical Aerospace Medicine | Fitness for duty and return to work, including coronary artery disease, pulmonary, otolaryngology, and musculoskeletal and other conditions; health maintenance, wellness, and risk assessment |
| 03 – Operational Aerospace Medicine | Military operations; mishap investigation, including site activities and forensic considerations |
| 04 – Management and Administration | Civil and international regulations; organizations including DOT/FAA |
Sources: Continuing Certification (CCP) - The American Board of Preventive Medicine — theabpm.org CCP program page; Aerospace Medicine Longitudinal Assessment Program (LAP) - The American Board of Preventive Medicine — 2026 LAP content section
A classification exercise to aim your review
Before studying any content area, practice placing a scenario in its 2026 outline subsection; the placement tells you exactly which material to review.
Because the LAP is open book, your speed comes from knowing where to look, not from recalling every fact. A useful habit is to read a scenario, name the outline subsection it belongs to, and only then open your references. The exercise below uses only the published 2026 headings, so you can verify every answer against ABPM's own list.
Practice exercise
Match each mini-vignette to its 2026 aerospace medicine LAP subsection, using only ABPM's published heading list. (a) A pilot in a sustained accelerating climb reports that the nose feels pitched higher than it is. (b) A captain seeks clearance to return to line flying months after treatment for coronary artery disease. (c) An investigation team documents wreckage distribution and injury patterns after an aircraft mishap.
Show answer
(a) 01.03.03 Spatial orientation, subsection 01.03.03.03 Illusions. (b) 02.01.01.03 Coronary artery disease, under 02.01 Fitness for duty and return to work. (c) 03.05 Mishap investigation, with subsections 03.05.01 Site activities and 03.05.02 Forensic considerations.
Assumptions: each vignette is a classification task only, and the 2026 heading list is the mapping source. Vignette (a) describes a perceptual disturbance during flight, which the outline places under spatial orientation illusions. Vignette (b) is a return-to-duty question about a named cardiac condition, matching the coronary artery disease heading under fitness for duty. Vignette (c) concerns post-accident investigation work, matching mishap investigation. Note what this exercise does not claim: the clinical, forensic, or regulatory reasoning inside each topic lives in your study materials and the official objectives, not in this guide. The skill being trained is fast, accurate placement, which is what makes open-book review efficient.
Fees and deadlines for 2026
The annual fee and CME attestation are due December 31, 2026, with tiered pricing from $150 to $200 per certificate and a $150 late fee for payments after year end.
For calendar year 2026, the annual continuing certification fee and CME attestation are due December 31, 2026. The fee is $150 per ABPM certificate if paid January 1 through March 31, $175 if paid April 1 through June 30, and $200 if paid July 1 through December 31, with discounts applied at checkout. A $150 late fee applies to annual fees paid after December 31 of the year they were due.
Context helps this fee make sense: it replaced the previous $1,750 MOC exam fee that diplomates paid once per certification cycle. ABPM uses the annual fee to fund the CCP itself, the LAP and its platform, and the Physician Portal.
Where to confirm your own requirements
Your exact requirements are personalized in the ABPM Physician Portal, so treat this guide as orientation and the portal plus ABPM's FAQs as the authority.
ABPM states that you find your specific requirements by logging into the Physician Portal, so verify your own status there before relying on any summary. Make sure your contact details are current, since ABPM sends LAP participation information by email.
A short checklist for this year:
For anything this guide does not cover, such as the full exam content outline, initial certification, or regaining a lapsed certificate, ABPM's own site sections are the place to look.
- Log into the Physician Portal and read your personalized requirement list.
- Confirm your license details and ABPM ID are current.
- Plan your 20 CME credits, with at least six relevant to aerospace medicine, and search CME Passport for registered activities.
- Complete the 30 LAP questions before year end, answering each opened question within 60 minutes.
- Pay the annual fee before the tiered price rises, and no later than December 31, 2026.
Sources: Continuing Certification (CCP) - The American Board of Preventive Medicine — theabpm.org CCP program page; Continuing Certification Program (CCP) Requirements by Specialty - The American Board of Preventive Medicine — specialty selection page
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