This podcast episode discusses the importance of standardization and accreditation within the medicolegal death investigator community.
This fourth episode of Just Science Podcast’s Supporting Medicolegal Death Investigators mini season, where the host, Kelly Keyes, interviews Bridget Kinnier, the President of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI), and Bethany Smith, ABMDI’s Executive Director. The podcasters discuss the importance of having national standards of knowledge for those who work in the field. ABMDI is a credentialing organization for medicolegal death investigators within medical examiner, coroners jurisdictions, and equivalent federal authorities such as tribal lands and the military. Kinnier and Smith describe their career paths, the ABMDI certification process and what the implications of becoming ABMDI certified are, different certification levels, the certification exam, and a recent big change in 2020 when they implemented a point system for the certification qualification requirement that would allow experience from other categories to be counted rather than limiting it strictly to employment experience. The two guests also give advice to people who might be interested in becoming ABMDI certified.