CHICAGO - (Business Wire) Brought together by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) to encourage alignment of healthcare quality improvement efforts, key stakeholders spoke at the first ABMS Board Congress: “MOC That Matters,” to discuss the evolving and envisioned role of the ABMS Maintenance of Certification® (ABMS MOC®) program. Speakers emphasized that the continual evaluation of physician competency that is at the heart of ABMS MOC is crucial and that initiatives must be flexible enough to reflect the diversity of physician practices and healthcare entity needs, while meeting a common standard. Speakers representing The Joint Commission, a New York-based hospital system and a credentialing consultant discussed how they envision ABMS MOC providing the most benefit. Representatives of ABMS Member Boards showcased some of their best practices in implementing MOC Parts II and IV, noting that their physician members’ (diplomates) practices differ significantly.
“Alignment of the various entities and efforts is the key to healthcare quality improvement, and bringing different stakeholders together is the most efficient way to continue the conversation and make progress,” said Kevin B. Weiss, MD, ABMS president and CEO. “At this forum, credentialers learned about the progress that ABMS Member Boards are making that will benefit them, and Member Boards heard that their efforts are valued and that continued progress is necessary and will benefit everyone.”
ABMS is the not-for-profit organization that coordinates and assists its 24 Member Boards in their efforts to develop and implement educational and professional standards for the evaluation and certification of U.S. physician specialists. For more than 75 years, ABMS and its Member Boards have been a leading and trusted resource for consumers and healthcare professionals seeking information on physician qualifications, first by establishing board certification and then recertification. To keep pace with continuous advances in the field of medicine, ABMS and its Member Boards evolved their recertification programs to one of continuous professional development, called ABMS Maintenance of Certification (ABMS MOC). ABMS MOC assures that the participating physician is committed to lifelong learning and on-going self-assessment along six areas of competency. Measurement of these competencies happens in numerous ways, some of which vary according to the specialty. This is carried out by all Member Boards using a four-part process that is designed to keep certification continuous.
Paul M. Schyve, MD, senior vice president of The Joint Commission, said MOC can be most beneficial to credentialers if it helps them determine what privileges – the authorization to provide specific clinical services at a hospital – physicians should be granted by providing assessment of the physician’s training and competence in new procedures, as well as providing ongoing performance data, and evidence of effective teamwork and interpersonal skills.
“At hospitals, we’re often challenged in determining how to know if and when someone is competent to do something new. Hospitals want standards that are sufficient for regulatory agencies, relevant, consistent and reproducible, transparent and that minimize additional work,” said Laura L. Forese, MD, chief medical officer and COO of New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. “There is an excellent opportunity for the Boards to take a more active role.”
Representatives of several Member Boards discussed the diverse initiatives they have created for two of the four-part MOC process: Part II (Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment) and Part IV (Practice Performance Assessment).
For Part II, the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) created a Web-based self-assessment module (SAM), a clinical simulation that creates a unique “patient” with each iteration. The diplomate is provided the patient’s history, as well as access to diagnostic studies, panels and counseling interventions. The diplomate treats the patient, with the ability to go through several cycles until he or she feels the patient has been treated satisfactorily, and then ends the simulation. The program provides feedback, including whether the diplomate’s actions were appropriate and the level of evidence supporting them. “Simulation is the way of the future, the best way to hone your skills without exposing real patients to risk,” said Michael D. Hagen, MD, senior vice president of ABFM.
The American Board of Medical Genetics (ABMG) created a variety of modules based on literature review, in which diplomates take a Web-based test without preparation. They are then given five to seven articles to review, and retake the test as an open book. “Diplomates commented that “it made me focus on what my peers think is important, made me read, made me think,’ ” said Karla J. Matteson, Ph.D., executive director of the ABMG. Diplomates must complete three modules during the course of 10 years and new modules are regularly created and old ones discontinued.
For Part IV, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) developed more than a dozen practice improvement modules (PIMs) helping physicians develop plans to improve the care they deliver in their practices around common conditions faced by internal medicine physicians, such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, or to improve their communication skills with patients and peers. The PIMs incorporate patient surveys, chart review and practice system surveys. “PIMs help physicians not only improve their care delivery but better understand the interaction of the physician, system and patient, the three important elements of care delivery,” said Eric S. Holmboe, MD, chief medical officer of ABIM. ABIM is engaged in ongoing research and analysis of the PIMs with 11 peer-reviewed studies published or in press.
As a procedure-based specialty, the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) offers Web-based practice assessments in various plastic surgery (PA-PS) modules addressing a variety of procedures, from cleft palate to carpal tunnel surgery. Diplomates must complete PA-PS modules in years three, six and nine of the 10-year MOC cycle. For each module, diplomates review 10 consecutive patient charts for a given procedure and complete questions for related to specific aspects of surgical care. For example, the PA-PS module focus on operating time, outcomes, complications and surgeon as well as patient satisfaction. Diplomates are then compared to their peers and provided an action plan for improvement, including a link to a relevant CME article in a journal. The goal is to demonstrate continued practice improvement.
ABMS will continue its effort to bring industry together with the Member Boards to discuss common issues and strategies for alignment at future Board Congresses and workshops.
About ABMS
For more than 75 years, American Board of Medical Specialties is the medical organization overseeing physician certification in the United States. It assists its 24 Member Boards in their efforts to develop and implement educational and professional standards for the evaluation and certification of physician specialists. ABMS Member Boards provide physician certification information to ABMS for its certification verification service programs. ABMS is recognized by the key healthcare credentialing accreditation entities as a primary equivalent source of board certification data for medical specialists. Patients can visit www.abms.org or call toll-free 1-866-ASK-ABMS to see if their physician is board certified by an ABMS Member Board. For more information about ABMS visit www.abms.org or call (312) 436-2600.
The 24 Member Boards that make up the ABMS Board Enterprise, cover over 145 medical specialties and subspecialties, and include: American Board of Allergy and Immunology, American Board of Anesthesiology, American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery, American Board of Dermatology, American Board of Emergency Medicine, American Board of Family Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Medical Genetics, American Board of Neurological Surgery, American Board of Nuclear Medicine, American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Board of Ophthalmology, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, American Board of Otolaryngology, American Board of Pathology, American Board of Pediatrics, American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, American Board of Plastic Surgery, American Board of Preventive Medicine, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, American Board of Radiology, American Board of Surgery, American Board of Thoracic Surgery and American Board of Urology.
Lori Boukas, ABMS
(312) 436-2626
lboukas@abms.org
or
Lindsay Kahn, PCI
(312) 558-1770
lkahn@pcipr.com
