As released at the American College of Cardiology’s (ACC) 68th Annual Scientific Session this week in New Orleans, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and ACC have announced a new Collaborative Maintenance Pathway (CMP) option for certified cardiologists who wish to maintain their board certification.
A Cardiovascular Disease CMP that utilizes the ACC’s Adult Clinical Cardiology Self-Assessment Program (ACCSAP) for formative engagement in learnings and the demonstration of currency with an annual performance assessment will become available this year. In order to be successful in this CMP, the cardiologist will need to engage with the ACCSAP educational materials in specific content areas each year. The cardiologist will need to participate in one year’s materials in order to participate in the performance assessment later in that calendar year. A new performance assessment will be available each year, with each assessment covering roughly 20 percent of the field of cardiovascular disease. This means that over the course of five years, the breadth of general cardiology will be covered.
The 2019 ACCSAP performance assessment will focus on arrhythmias. Therefore, physicians planning to enter the CMP in 2019 should begin to focus their studying on the arrhythmia section of ACCSAP now, and the performance assessment on arrhythmias will be available in the fall. It is anticipated that CMPs in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, Interventional Cardiology and Advanced Heart Failure, and Transplant Cardiology will become available in 2020.
To be eligible to participate in this new option a physician must:
- Be currently certified by ABIM and not in an MOC exam grace period
- Participate in ACCSAP
- Spend time “engaging” in the topic areas covered annually by the CMP Performance Assessment, spending at least seven hours:
o Reading the text, watching/listening to presentations and/or completing practice questions in the Arrhythmias chapter
o Completing all 94 Arrhythmias practice questions and answering at least 70% of them correctly to align with current CME requirements
- Take the first Performance Assessment in fall 2019
2019 is considered a “no consequences” year for this new option, which means physicians will be considered as meeting their ABIM assessment requirement as long as they have participated in both the engagement and performance components of the pathway. Beginning in 2020, a physician must engage in the learning components and pass the Performance Assessment to be considered as meeting their ABIM assessment requirement. Physicians will have two chances each year to pass the performance assessment.
ABIM’s traditional 10-year MOC exam and the two-year Knowledge Check-In assessment will remain available to diplomates if they choose not to participate in the CMP.
This announcement follows discussions that began in 2017 between ABIM and ACC in response to feedback from cardiologists who expressed interest in a way to focus their study in specific areas over the course of several years, rather than one test every decade.
“The new CMP leverages the respective expertise of the ACC and ABIM to create a literal ‘pathway’ that meets the ongoing learning needs of cardiologists, while also giving patients, the public and other stakeholders confidence that the care provided by their physicians is of the highest quality,” said Timothy W. Attebery, DSc, MBA, FACHE, Chief Executive Officer of ACC. “We appreciate ABIM working with us on what we believe is a win-win solution for cardiologists and the patients they serve.”
“Through meaningful engagement with the physician community and professional societies, ABIM is proud to continue the evolution of our MOC program in a myriad of ways to better meet the needs of physicians and the patients they serve,” said Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of ABIM. “This new offering increases choice, flexibility and relevance for board certified cardiologists while also keeping a performance standard that gives patients confidence that their physician possesses the current medical knowledge necessary to deliver high-quality care. We appreciate ACC’s expertise and partnership throughout this journey to co-create an innovative new assessment option for cardiologists.”