The National Board of Echocardiography (NBE) currently develops and administers the PTEeXAM and certifies individual practitioners in advanced PTE. The origins of the NBE date from 1992, when the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) formed the ASEeXAM parent committee, which was chaired by Arthur “Ned” Weyman, MD, and was charged with developing a process by which physicians could demonstrate special competence in adult echocardiography. The result was what is now called the Examination of Special Competence in Adult Echocardiography (ASCeXAM), which has been given at the ASE annual meeting since 1995. The ASCeXAM is a general test of knowledge in adult echocardiography including transthoracic and stress echo, and is intended mainly for cardiologists, although other physicians including anesthesiologists are eligible and have taken it. But it was primarily out of concern that the ASCeXAM was not an appropriate measure of knowledge in PTE for most anesthesiologists that the SCA formed the Task Force for Certification in Perioperative TEE, which developed the PTEeXAM. In 1996, in order to deal with potential conflict of interest issues that arose with the ASE certifying practitioners in echocardiography, the ASEeXAM parent committee became an independent corporation called ASEeXAM, Incorporated. In 1998, as a result of negotiations between ASEeXAM, Inc and the SCA, ASEeXAM, Inc took on writing and administration of the PTEeXAM and changed its name to the NBE.