Advancing Medical Regulation: AI Innovation, Workforce Solutions, and Member Board Support

Advancing Medical Regulation: AI Innovation, Workforce Solutions, and Member Board Support

Throughout much of 2025 and into 2026, FSMB continued to support our member boards and foster collaboration among regulatory bodies through several key initiatives. In January 2026, the USMLE Service Transition successfully launched in two phases to combine all Step exam services—including exam registration, score report delivery, and customer service—under the USMLE co-sponsors, FSMB and NBME. In phase one, Step 1 and Step 2 CK services previously provided to students and graduates of international medical schools (IMGs) by ECFMG transitioned to FSMB. FSMB now manages all USMLE Step exam services for IMGs. In phase two, Step 3 services previously provided to students and graduates of US medical schools by FSMB transitioned to NBME. NBME now manages all USMLE Step exam services for students and graduates of US medical schools. FSMB staff collaborated closely with their counterparts at NBME and Intealth (which oversees ECFMG) for over a year and a half to implement the USMLE Service Transition, which now simplifies the examinee journey to create a more consistent and efficient process.

The Advisory Commission on Additional Licensing Models, convened in December 2023 by FSMB, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and Intealth, completed its charge in 2025 by producing two complementary sets of guidance that together offer a coherent framework for states pursuing additional licensure pathways for internationally trained physicians. Through these guidance documents, the Commission has translated extensive stakeholder input and regulatory expertise into practical recommendations on eligibility, structure, supervision, and assessment, providing state medical boards and policymakers alike with a roadmap to expand workforce capacity while preserving the primacy of patient safety and public protection.

In June, FSMB launched a national public awareness campaign—Care Matters—to spotlight the critical role state medical boards play in protecting patients and supporting quality care. The campaign featured a series of short video ads on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, aimed in this phase at women ages 18–55. These videos highlight the vital role physicians play in life's most important health moments—while also emphasizing how state medical boards work behind the scenes to support safe, ethical, and high-quality care. By reinforcing the connection between trusted care and effective regulation, the campaign helped to build public understanding of the value medical boards bring to the healthcare system. By the end of 2025, the campaign had generated more than 61 million views across social media and drove over 60,000 website visits to CareMatters.org, the campaign's educational website. An extension of the "Care Matters" campaign is now being developed for 2026.

The Office of AI Innovation, launched in 2025, continues to centralize FSMB's AI initiatives to strengthen internal operations and enhance regulatory support for state medical boards. It focuses on practical, high impact applications of AI—such as tools for research, complaint triage, and operational efficiency—while bringing together cross functional leaders in IT, legal, and executive roles to drive hands on innovation. To quote our Chief Operations Officer, Michael Dugan, MBA:

"Everything we now do with technology involves artificial intelligence."

FSMB was pleased to participate in the 2025 IAMRA Conference in Dublin, Ireland, joining medical regulatory leaders and colleagues from across the United States (21 state and territorial medical boards are members) and around the world to engage in important discussions on global best practices, innovation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing under the major theme of "People-focused Regulation for a Safer Global Community." As a longstanding major sponsor and Secretariat for IAMRA—whose new Chair is Nicole Krishnaswami, JD, Executive Director of the Oregon Medical Board—FSMB also showcased its work as an exhibitor, highlighting resources and initiatives that support strong, effective medical regulation worldwide.

FSMB's 113th Annual Meeting (AM25), themed "Innovating Together," was held in Seattle, Washington from April 24-26, 2025. This year's meeting featured record-breaking attendance with 605 attendees participating in person, a slight increase over last year's attendance of 595 in-person attendees in Nashville, Tennessee. Learning formats employed at AM25 included:

• Four keynote speakers, including Timothy Caulfield, Dr. Eric Topol, Ali Ingersoll, and Dr. Stephen Loyd

• Nine concurrent sessions, including the first ever "Lunch & Learn" sessions

• Eight role-specific forums

• A spotlight poster reception with a record number of poster submissions

• Three difficult case forums

• Two plenary panels dedicated to examining workforce Issues

Other topics addressed innovation in medicine and medical regulation, responsible practice in a changing medical and political landscape, competence and fitness to practice, and role-specific sessions that focused on complex responsibilities within medical regulation. Recorded sessions and posters from the online poster hall are available for viewing online on FSMB's website.

I am grateful for the insightful, diligent, and collaborative leadership this past year of FSMB Chair George Abraham, MD, MPH, whose guidance and support in our efforts have been unmatched. Traveling across the nation on behalf of state medical boards, Dr. Abraham has worked tirelessly to champion the role of our member boards and their critical mission of public protection. At the urging of Dr. Abraham, a priority for our organization this past year has been the development of thoughtful guidance for state medical boards about the proliferation of certain medical practices that pose regulatory concerns due to the potential for patient harm and exploitation. The Workgroup on Trends in Prescribing and Dispensing has developing guidance addressing the regulatory oversight of potentially under-regulated medical practices, such as ketamine therapy, IV hydration therapy, GLP-1 prescribing, dispensing, and compounding, and psychedelic-assisted therapies.

Dr. Abraham also charged the Ethics and Professionalism Committee with studying ethical and professional considerations related to unionization and collective bargaining by physicians and physicians in training and the potential impact on patient access and safety. With 74% of the nation's physicians now employed, the committee's work has been timely.

The Workgroup on Oversight of Clinical Decision-Making, begun under FSMB Past Chair Katie Templeton, JD, finished its work assessing systemic factors impacting the clinical decisions of physicians, including the corporate practice of medicine, reviewing the potential influence of payors and other third parties on standards of care, while evaluating administrative burdens on physician workforce, physician well-being, and patient safety.

It has been an honor and a privilege to work alongside Dr. Abraham and our enthusiastic and talented board of directors, as well as our amazing and hard-working staff, who individually and collectively bring an incredible amount of energy, insight, and wisdom to everything we do at FSMB.