Medical Association Works to Ease MOC Frustrations

Frustrations with the current Maintenance of Certification process brought together Medical Association Executive Director Mark Jackson and Council on Medical Service member Jeff Rickert, M.D., and representatives from other state medical societies and individual specialty boards for a series of meetings with the American Board of Medical Specialties.

The daylong meeting in Chicago was called at the request of state medical societies, including the Medical Association, who have expressed increasing frustration with the MOC process and have demanded changes be made. Leadership within ABMS and the specialty boards engaged in meaningful dialogue during the meeting with promises to address criticisms of the current MOC process.

Discussions included 170 innovations the medical boards are working on to address continuous learning for physicians, many of which include input from various outside stakeholders and focus on greater consistency amongst the medical boards. Innovations also include alternatives to the high-stakes exams with a focus on longitudinal learning for physicians in their relevant practice areas. Many medical boards outlined current (or moving to) learning modules that would be seamless for physicians and provide a gap analysis. Most medical boards seemed to be moving away from the high-stakes examination that has been the challenge of the physicians. There was also discussion by some of the medical boards on reducing the fees collected from physicians for the tests and the need to be more customer friendly.

The Medical Association’s Board of Censors created MOC study committee to fully examine the MOC issue and provide feedback to the Board. Dr. Rickert is a member of this committee and will provide input in the coming weeks as the committee discusses recommendations to the Board of Censors.