Introduction:

In 1975, the House of Delegates of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) approved the concept of specialization and created the Task Force on Clinical Specialization.. The task force was charged with identifying and defining physical therapy specialty practice areas and with developing the structure for and function of a Board-certified process.. The document developed by the task force, “Essentials for Certification of Advanced Clinical Competence in Physical Therapy,” was adopted by the House of Delegates in 1978.. At that time, the House recognized four specialty areas: cardiovascular/pulmonary, neurology, orthopedics, and pediatrics. In 1979, the House appointed the Commission for the Certification of Advanced Clinical Competence.. Specialty councils for each of the four specialty areas were appointed by the commission and charged with the development of com-petencies unique to the advanced clinician in their respective areas. In 1980, the Commission became the Board of Certification of Advanced Clinical Competencies (BCACC).. The House of Delegates recognized two more specialty areas that same year: sports and clinical electrophysiology.. In 1985, the “Essentials for Certification of Advanced Clinical Competence in Physical Therapy” was revised by the House of Delegates and the title was changed to “Essentials for Certification of Physical Therapist Specialists..” The BCACC was renamed the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties (ABPTS), and the first specialty examination was administered in cardiovas-cular/pulmonary physical therapy that same year.. The specialty area of geriatrics was approved in 1989.. In June of 2006, the APTA House of Delegates approved Women’s Health as the newest area of physical therapist specialty practice..

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