Strategic Plan: LEAD

Artificial intelligence, competency-based education, stakeholder expectations, and growing demands for evidence and transparency are transforming how assessment organizations must operate. Patients’ needs and expectations as to the competencies of their physicians and care they receive likewise are evolving and remain at the heart of what we do. This plan ensures NBOME remains responsive, innovative, and anchored in its mission to protect the public through high‑quality, competency assessment for osteopathic medicine and related health care professions.

The plan reflects NBOME’s commitment to integrating stakeholder voice, technological innovation, assessment excellence, and data-driven insight into one cohesive strategy. Each pillar is intentionally connected: listening guides priority-setting, innovation, and exploration; technology enhances capability, efficiency, and customer experience; assessment helps to ensure competence, foster CQI, and a focus on what is important; and research strengthens evidence and trust. Together, these four pillars establish a unified direction for impact and growth for the NBOME over the next four years and beyond.

The NBOME will continue to enhance and modernize the assessment enterprise, expand its leadership in competency-based evaluation, including in clinical skills assessment, and deepen its role as a trusted national resource for data, research, and evidence. LEAD envisions an NBOME that is more agile, more technologically innovative for stakeholders, more integrated, and even more attuned to the needs of learners, educators, accreditors, and the licensing community, and the public.

By 2030, the NBOME will:

• Deliver assessments enhanced by secure, defensible AI technologies, improving quality, timeliness, and efficiency.
• Operate a modernized MyNBOME platform that simplifies engagement, strengthens security, and expands data access.
• Support national adoption of osteopathic competency‑based assessment models across the continuum, furthering the evidence for the validity for stated uses.
• Provide richer data, research, and insights to educators, regulators, and health care partners.
• Demonstrate organizational leadership through active listening and clarity, increasing trust and strengthening relationships.

At its core, LEAD strengthens the NBOME’s unwavering commitment to public protection, patient safety, and competencies fundamental to the distinctive practice of osteopathic medicine as well as for related health care professions. Plan initiatives advance fairness, relevance, and excellence in assessment, ensuring that more patients can access high-quality osteopathic medical care throughout the US and around the globe.

The plan rests on four pillars:

Pillar 1: Leading by Listening and Advocating

Institutionalize active listening, clarity, and responsiveness to ensure stakeholder perspectives continue to meaningfully inform priorities, decisions, communications, and advocacy efforts.

Goals:

• Establish regular stakeholder forums to gather input, share updates, identify actionable recommendations, and communicate back to stakeholders.
• Implement active listening training for leadership and staff to continue to strengthen engagement and responsiveness.
• Develop and apply clear decision-making protocols that document stakeholder input and rationale for major initiatives.
• Strengthen consistency and clarity in messaging across the Board, National Faculty, staff and all stakeholders.
• Advocate with state medical and osteopathic medical licensing boards and regulatory authorities to ensure COMLEX‑USA is recognized and accepted as the licensure examination pathway for osteopathic physicians.

Pillar 2: Enhancing Assessment through Technology and AI

Leverage advanced technologies and artificial intelligence to safely, securely, and ethically modernize NBOME’s practices in assessment development, delivery, scoring, reporting, and stakeholder experience.

Goals:

• Operationalize AI in test development, scoring, and related processes with appropriate governance to ensure human oversight and valid use.
• Modernize digital platforms, including the MyNBOME portal, to support data sharing, credentialing, stakeholder engagement, and operational efficiency.
• Continually strengthen cybersecurity, interoperability, and system integration to protect data integrity and public trust.
• Improve efficiency, scalability, and user experience while maintaining psychometric rigor.

Pillar 3: Advancing Competency-Based Assessment for Osteopathic Medicine and Related Health Care Professions

Lead the development, implementation, and validation of competency-based assessments for osteopathic medicine and related health care professions that support readiness, professional identity, and patient-centered care across the continuum.

Goals:

• Expand adoption and validation of clinical skills and competency-based assessment models, including C3DO, CCV, and related initiatives.
• Successfully deliver major enhancements to COMLEX-USA Levels 1 and 2-CE (test question modifications) and Level 3 (transition to 1 day administration).
• Publish FOMCD 2026 in a scholarly journal and engage National Faculty in integrating the new competency framework into blueprints and test development for NBOME assessments.
• Explore residency readiness profiles and micro-assessments to support transitions across the education and training continuum.
• Enhance formative, multi-source feedback to support early identification of learner needs and targeted development, ultimately improving patient care.
• Continue campaign with other osteopathic medical leaders (including AOA-COCA, AACOM & ASOMR) to strengthen osteopathic professional identity formation and advocate for licensing examination parity in graduate medical education.
• Develop a decision framework to consistently evaluate and respond to service requests for consultation or assessment services from related health care professions.

Pillar 4: Driving Research and Data Innovation

Harness NBOME data, research capacity, and partnerships to add to the validity evidence for the uses of assessment, inform educational programs, support continuous improvement, and demonstrate impact.

Goals:

• Build and maintain a secure enterprise environment for data analysis and research, including closed AI applications.
• Increase peer-reviewed scholarship related to assessment, outcomes, and osteopathic practice.
• Strengthen data-sharing partnerships and dashboards to support educators, learners, and regulators.
• Use research and data insights to inform policy, guide assessment design, and demonstrate impact.