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The term ‘board eligible’ has never been recognized by member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), including the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), but the term continues to be used by credentialing organizations and others to recognize non-certified physicians as having equivalent status. In an effort to resolve this confusion for the credentialers and the patients, all member boards of the ABMS agreed to establish parameters under which non-certified physicians could actually be recognized as being board eligible and to further define the time limit for such board eligible status.

This correspondence is to notify you the Iowa Department of Public Health, Bureau of Immunization, is exploring a secondary school Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis (Tdap) vaccine requirement. Currently, Iowa is only one of 10 states without a Tdap mandate at the secondary school level. Bordetella pertussis and causes epidemics every three to five years. In 2010, there were 705 confirmed and probable cases of pertussis reported to IDPH, which accounts for a 229% increase in activity over the previous three years average and a 69% increase over the past five years average. Immunization assessment data shows in 2010, 58% of Iowa’s children 13-17 years of age had received one dose of Tdap vaccine. The secondary school vaccine requirement will help Iowa achieve and maintain high vaccination adolescent coverage levels while reducing the number of pertussis cases occurring annually in Iowa

Pertussis or whooping cough is caused by