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ACR issues position statement on ABIM’s current MOC requirements
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The American College of Rheumatology issued a seven-point position statement about the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Maintenance of Certification requirements and calls for changes to or elimination of certain provisions of the current requirements and for independent assessment of the program.
Bruce N. Cronstein, MD, Paul R. Esserman of in the of at New York University School of Medicine, was involved in the development of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) position statement and told Healio.com/Rheumatology that the seven positions reflect feedback from members of ACR about the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) of Certification (MOC) requirements. He said that while rheumatologists “clearly believe in the value of continuing medical education so that the care we offer our patients is consistent with the highest standards of medical care,” members are concerned that the MOC program is time consuming, expensive, not implemented effectively, has redundancies and may not provide relevant information to an individual practitioner.
“The most common theme is the requirement to complete activities, such as patient voice and quality of care activities, for which they are already being evaluated by third parties,” Cronstein said. “Moreover, as there is little or no evidence that any of the MOC activities lead to meaningful improvements in patient outcomes, it is difficult to justify the large expenditure of time and resource required for the MOC.”
Cronstein said members also cited concerns about the closed-book examination used for recertification when digital resources are immediately available on a daily basis. The third position statement issued by the ACR calls for the elimination of the exam and the use of CME or an open-book test instead.
Other concerns included potential educational requirements that do not complement the specialized areas of rheumatology in which a physician may practice.
“Physicians in academic practices often confine their practice to a restricted spectrum of patients in accord with their central academic interests,” Cronstein told Healio.com/Rheumatology. “Some academic physicians see only patients with systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis and it is not productive to have them pay for or expend their time on MOC credits related to osteoarthritis or other unrelated issues.”
When asked if ABIM seems responsive to the concerns cited by ACR, Cronstein said he believed the organization is listening as evidenced by the proposal to accept CME-sponsored credits rather than only ABIM-certified activities.
“ABIM did respond to the position statement and recently shared with us an advance copy of their Assessment 2020 Task Force Report and invited the ACR to submit a formal response to the recommendations,” Cronstein said, and added that ACR and ABIM representatives will meet next month. – by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure: Cronstein reports no relevant financial disclosures and is exempt from participation in MOC due to grandfathered status.