This exam gives students their Certification as a Medicolegal Death Investigator. It is not the registry exam you would take in order to be registered with ABMDI. As it states on the Certification Information page on our website at https://ditacademy.org/certification:
"The Death Investigation Training Academy's Medicolegal Death Investigator Certification is NOT associated with the *American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI) Registry Certification. It is the goal of this certification to move students through the development of skills and experience toward a career in Medicolegal Death Investigation."
What is the difference between the Death Investigation Training Academy's National Medicolegal Death Investigation Certification Exam and ABMDI's Certification Registry Exam?
To be eligible to sit for The Death Investigation Training Academy's National Medicolegal Death Investigator Certification exam, students must have passed and completed the entirety of the Medicolegal Death Investigator course. Students are not required to hold advanced degrees or to be currently working in the field of death investigation to take the National Certification Exam.
And it doesn't stop there. We not only offer the Medicolegal Death Investigator Course and the opportunity to sit for the National Certification of Medicolegal Death Investigators Exam, but our instructors also provide an expansive array of courses covering a variety of topics.
In contrast, the ABMDI exam affords students who meet the criteria necessary, depending on the type of registration applied for, the opportunity, upon passing, to be listed on the ABMDI registry.
DITA's MDI Certification gives students a significant advantage when it comes to obtaining the necessary employment requirements in order to take the ABMDI registry exam, and pre-approved courses meet the requirements for Continuing Education Units or CEUs, needed by current registered ABMDI members to renew their ABMDI registration. As it states on the homepage of our website:
"Our courses are accredited and approved by ABMDI, as well as other state and national organizations governing law enforcement and medicolegal organizations".
ABMDI reviews and approves the courses we offer that qualify for their continuing education units (CEUs). You will find our academy listed on their website with a handful of other agencies providing ABMDI-approved training. Each ABMDI-approved course is renewed every year.
A large number of our students are also working toward ABMDI registry requirements. Many have gone on to take their ABMDI registry exam once all their requirements are met, and afterwards, have come back & in their unsolicited testimonials have credited DITA's courses, in particular the MDI course and their obtaining their Certification through our Academy as being exactly what was needed to gain the necessary employment required, perform their duties on scene with skill and confidence, as well as aiding in passing their registry exam. And when it's time to renew registry certification by submitting the necessary CEUs to ABMDI, a majority of students return to the Death Investigation Training Academy, or DITA, to take the pre-approved ABMDI courses in order to gain those CEUs.
In fact, many states have now made it mandatory for those working as coroners, deputy coroners, or in the field to complete DITA's full MDI course and pass the Certification Exam.
At DITA, as long as a student renews their Certification and submits the required CEUs and application every 2 years, they remain in good standing and retain their certification, regardless of whether they continue to work in the direct field of death investigation and/or for a Coroner or ME's office. Leaving the field does not automatically remove a student's National Certification of Medicolegal Death Investigator's standing.
*For more information regarding ABMDI's registry requirements, please visit their website.
