Deanna Cobb, pediatrics residency program specialist, and Gail Driver, orthopaedic surgery residency program specialist, recently received certification through the National Board for Certification Training Administrators of Graduate Medical Education (TAGME).  Cobb and Driver are the only two within the USA Health System to hold the C-TAGME certification and distinction.

The TAGME Task Force Committee for orthopeadic surgery was formally established in March 2006 following almost two years of preparation and planning. As chairperson for the committee, and one of only four certified orthopaedic surgery coordinators in the nation, Driver’s role included establishing goals and deadlines for the committee’s tasks, assisting in actual development of the testing materials, and presenting the finished product to TAGME’s national board for approval.

“Interacting with the residents in orthopaedic surgery during the past ten years has been a wonderful experience,” said Driver. “Also, the process of certification for residency coordinators is very exciting. Establishing standards of excellence and

recognizing coordinators who meet, and many times exceed, those standards lends professional and educational value and credibility to our profession.”

Similarly, Deanna Cobb, as one of the first 25 pediatric residency coordinators in the United States to be certified feels privileged to be part of the graduate medical education process in pediatrics.

“I really enjoy my job as a coordinator and find working with the residents very rewarding and a lot of fun,” said Cobb. “It’s an honor to be a part of their training process.”

TAGME was created to establish standards for the profession, to acknowledge the expertise needed to successfully manage graduate medical education programs and to recognize those training program administrators who have achieved competence in all fields related to their profession.

Certification is awarded based on four basic criteria: three years in the same specialty, participation in an on site visit or internal review within three years, at least two personal professional development experiences in the past three years, and lastly recommendation by the coordinator’s program director.