American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics

CE Requirements

All individuals who have passed the CHA, CHT, CHS or D(ABHI) exam must provide proof of Continuing Education (CE) in order to maintain an "active" status with regards to their certification. Persons certified after January 1, 1988 will be issued certificates for a three- (3) year period and must be re-certified at three-year intervals in order to maintain certification status with the Registry. Re-certificaton shall be either by re-examination or by accumulation of credits for Registry approved continuing education and professional activities. A minimum of 6.0 Continuing Education Credits (CEC) (60 contact hours) for CHA and CHT, and 8 CEC's (80 contact hours) for CHS is required each three (3) year period for re-certification. ABHI Diplomates are required to have a minimum of 15.0 CEC's (150 contact hours) each three (3) year period for re-certification (Table 1).

Table 1. Continuing Education Credits (CEC) Requirements by ABHI

Certification	Qualification	Continuing Education Credits (CEC) *
CHA	1) Associate Degree (or equivalent) 2) 2 years experience 3) Pass board exam	6.0 CEC (60 contact hours) per 3 year period
CHT	1) BS Degree 2) 1 year experience 3) Pass board exam.	6.0 CEC (60 contact hours) per 3 year period
CHS	1) BS Degree 2) 5 years experience 3) Pass board exam.	8.0 CEC (80 contact hours) per 3 year period
D(ABHI )	1) Doctoral degree** 2) Variable experience*** 3) Pass board exam.	15.0 CEC (150 contact hours) per 3 year period
* 1 CEC = 10 contact hours ** One possesses an earned doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in a biological science or has a medical degree (M.D., D.O.) and be licensed to practice in the State in which the lab is located. *** Have at least four years postdoctoral years of training in immunology, immunogenetics, or cell biology, at least two of which were devoted to formal training in human histocompatibility testing or five years postgraduate years of experience at the equivalent of an Associate/Assistant Director of a Histocompatibility Laboratory under the guidance of a qualified director. The postgraduate years of experience must be predominantly clinical in nature which means involvement with laboratory tests performed on human specimens for the purpose of obtaining information for the diagnosis, treatment and/or monitoring of patients.

Continuing Certification/re-certification is a process, which provides ABHI the mechanism to attest to the continued competence of certified practitioners. The intent of continuing certification is to provide assurance to the public that through periodic evaluations and continuing education a certified practitioner has maintained continuing competency in the specialty.

In 1999, the Accreditation Review Board (ARB), a committee of ASHI , established and published standards for annual continuing education requirements.These requirements were based on the standards set by the ABHI.The ARB of ASHI annual requirements are as follows (Table 2):

Table 2. CEC Requested by Accreditation Review Board (ARB) of ASHI

The same standards for both ABHI certification and ASHI accreditation have enabled the ARB of ASHI and the ABHI to coordinate efforts to make the completion and submission of information less complicated and non-duplicative. ABHI certified individuals are no longer required to submit continuing education forms for ASHI accreditation renewal. The ARB of ASHI has partnered with the ABHI to receive confirmation of continuing education credits on all certified individuals in their database.