New ABIM MOC Process: Asking for Physician Input

 

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) is setting a new process for internists and subspecialists on various aspects of Maintenance of Certification (MOC) assessments. These changes come in connection with the Assessment 2020 Task Force report, and will align with ABIM’s continuous improvement efforts.

As the MOC program continues to evolve, the goal is to ensure that the clinical content is relevant to a broad cross-section of physicians. As such, ABIM board certified physicians can provide input on what topics are most important and most often seen in practice, and some physicians will even be able to participate in the process to set MOC exam minimum passing scores.

In 2015, physicians across the full range of internal medicine practice reviewed the Internal Medicine MOC exam blueprint and rated exam topic areas by relative frequency and importance in practice. The input from those physicians, taken together with data from national databases, helped create updates to the Fall 2015 blueprint aimed at enhancing the assessment’s effectiveness at evaluating whether a certified general internist has maintained competence and currency in the knowledge and judgment required for practice.

Now, ABIM is expanding the blueprint review process to subspecialists, by allowing ABIM Board Certified physicians in several subspecialties to provide feedback on their MOC exam blueprints about relative frequency and importance in practice. Their input will be used to update the content of future MOC exams in the same way internal medicine input was used last year.

Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of ABIM, said,

Internists and subspecialists will have a hand in shaping the content of MOC assessments so they better reflect what physicians need to know to provide the best care for their patients. Moving forward, ABIM will continue to invite physicians to review assessment content, and, through their timely and representative responses, we will be able to create an even more meaningful credential that is a source of price for those staying current in medical knowledge and practice.

As mentioned previously, ABIM invited a group of ABIM Board Certified internists from various geographic regions, practice settings, and age ranges, who spend at least half of their work time in direct patient care, to participate in ABIM’s process for establishing the ABIM Fall 2015 Internal Medicine MOC examination minimum passing score. The internists worked with ABIM Internal Medicine Exam Committee members to set a new standard for the exam, which reflects the level of performance required to pass the exam. ABIM still does not set pass rates, instead, they rely on a evidence-based, peer-defined approach to set the exam’s minimum passing score.

Nick Fitterman, MD, Chair of the ABIM Internal Medicine Exam Committee, is thrilled with the outcome,

It was incredibly valuable to hear perspectives from physicians who participated in the standard setting process for the Fall 2015 Internal Medicine MOC exam. This enhanced process is quite reliable and representative, and we heard from several participants that they appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the exam. More physicians will be invited to participate in standard setting as other subspecialty MOC assessments are updated.

ABIM also collaborated with physicians to create Score Reports that feature a more user-friendly design with detailed descriptions of exam performance, so physicians taking the exam better understand their score. These new Score Reports are sent electronically to physicians.

ABIM plans to continue collaborating with physicians to update its approach to knowledge assessments and is continuing to look for ways to adapt assessments to embrace advances in medical practice and technology. You can learn more about ABIM’s ongoing conversations with the internal medicine community and opportunities to provide input by visiting the Transforming ABIM blog.

Additionally, if you are a physician who is interested in participating in the blueprint review, you can get more information here. The estimated time to rate each blueprint section varies, and ranges from approximately fifteen minutes to approximately one hour. You can choose to review just one section of the blueprint, multiple blueprint sections, or the entire blueprint. You are free to submit your review responses at any point, and can save your work and return to it later. The following subspecialties are currently open: Cardiovascular Disease; Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism; Medical Oncology; Nephrology; and Rheumatology. More subspecialties are slated to open in Spring 2016 and Fall 2016.

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