The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Board of Directors (BOD) recently announced its plans to address the recommendations shared in the final report of the Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future Commission. The final report was presented to the ABMS BOD in February 2019 and included a set of recommendations to help continuing certification evolve into a meaningful and relevant program that brings value to a physician’s practice and meets the highest standard of quality patient care.
During its February meeting, the ABMS BOD reviewed the final report and discussed how best to address the recommendations outlined in it. For first steps, the Board plans to take the following actions:
- Establish the “Achieving the Vision for Continuing Board Certification” Oversight Committee, which shall be responsible for directing the implementation of all of the recommendations. To that end, the Committee will seek input from the ABMS new Stakeholder Council and other stakeholders in the continuing certification process throughout implementation.
- Create four task force groups that will include representatives from professional and state societies and other external stakeholders.
- Remediation Pathways
- Professionalism
- Advancing Practice
- Information and Data Sharing
- Establish a meeting of the ABMS/Council of Medical Specialty Societies joint Board Leadership to ensure full specialty society engagement in building the road map outlined in the Commission report. This meeting will especially focus on the role of continuing certification in advancing clinical practice.
The Board will also look to get an agreement of all 24 ABMS Member Boards to commit to longitudinal or other formative assessment strategies and offer alternatives to the point-in-time, secure, examinations of knowledge, and work to develop new, integrated standards for continuing certification programs by 2020, including addressing Commission recommendations for flexibility in knowledge assessment and advancing practice, feedback to diplomates, and consistency.
“The ABMS Board of Directors appreciates the diligent, transparent, inclusive and thoughtful approach taken throughout the process by the Commission,” said Barry S. Smith, MD, Chair of the ABMS BOD. “As a Community, we are eager to begin implementing the Commission’s recommendations that represent the needs of all our stakeholders. We are also committed to maintaining the inclusive nature of the Commission and will work with external stakeholders as well as those within the Boards as we move forward.”
“The Commission’s final report conveys that continuing certification programs should bring value and meaning to physicians in helping them with their learning and improvement needs while fulfilling the Boards’ commitment to the public that physicians are maintaining their knowledge and skills and working to continuously improve their practices,” said ABMS President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard E. Hawkins, MD. “The Commission’s recommendations offer a collaborative roadmap for creating a continuing certification system that will ensure that the credential itself remains relevant and meaningful to physicians and the patients they serve well into the next decade and beyond.”