The 2012 Core Content of Medical Toxicology

In December 2011, the Medical Toxicology Subboard, composed of representatives from emergency medicine, pediatrics, and preventive medicine, approved a revised Core Content of Medical Toxicology. The Core Content encompasses the specialty of medical toxicology and outlines the areas of knowledge considered essential for the practice of medical toxicology. Functionally, the Core Content provides the organizational framework for the development of the medical toxicology certification and cognitive expertise examinations, and details the knowledge to be tested on those examinations, beginning with the 2014 examinations. In addition, the Core Content may serve as a template for the development of medical toxicology fellowship curricula. The previous version, initiated in 2000, approved in 2002, and published in 2004, will be retired and replaced by this new version. The first Medical Toxicology Core Content was developed to assist in the construction of the first examination in 1994. This document consisted of 22 major content areas and was organized, in part, by toxicant classification. Listed under most of these major content areas were exhaustive lists of drugs and toxicants of which a medical toxicologist was expected to have knowledge. In 2000, the Medical Toxicology Subboard embarked on a major revision of the original Core Content. This undertaking was initiated to update the 1994 Core Content, as well as to improve the framework that conceptualizes the expanding breadth of medical toxicology. In addition, the Subboard wanted to devise a conceptual document that would accommodate future discoveries and changes. A task force of Medical Toxicology Subboard members was convened to develop and draft the revised Core Content, and comments were solicited from stakeholders.