In This Issue: Fall 2017

CertlinkFirst ABMS Member Boards to Launch CertLink Pilots
Others receive positive feedback on existing longitudinal assessment pilots

Four American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Member Boards - the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics , American Board of Nuclear Medicine , American Board of Pathology , and American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation  - are planning to launch their CertLink ™ pilots by the first half of 2018. These longitudinal assessment pilots are supported by CertLink, ABMS' online platform designed to help physicians evaluate their knowledge, fill kno wledge gaps, and demonstrate proficiency.
 
The platform allows for opportunities to create assessments focused on practice-relevant content; offer convenient access on desktop, tablet, or smartphone (depending on the B oard's program); provide immediate, focused feedback and guidance to resources for further study; and present a personal dashboard that displays areas of strength and weakness.
 
As those Member Boards gear up to launch their CertLink pilots, other Boards that are already piloting their longitudinal assessment programs have received positive feedback. 
DxABMS Joins Human Dx Alliance
To help address gaps in specialty care for underserved patients

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has joined the Human Dx Alliance formed to help address the gaps that exist in providing specialty care to underserved patients.
 
The Alliance is part of the Human Diagnosis Project ("Human Dx"), an online system that allows doctors to directly help their patients and each other while simultaneously building a system to help patients and physicians worldwide. The newly formed Alliance will support Human Dx's mission to create more accurate, affordable, and accessible health care for millions of underserved Americans.
 
Specifically, over the next five years, the Alliance will scale the Human Dx system to support the U.S. medical safety net and help close the specialty care gap for 30 million patients. In the coming decades, Human Dx will work to expand the Alliance globally as it builds one open health system for all.
 
"As the nation's leading organization overseeing physician specialty certification, ABMS and its 24 Member Boards recognize the domestic and international gap that exists for the most vulnerable populations with regard to access to specialty care," stated ABMS President and Chief Executive Officer Lois Margaret Nora, MD, JD, MBA. "Human Dx has the potential to improve the health and well-being of patients in this country, and ultimately across the globe."
 
elderlyABMS Collaborates on Project to Improve Care of Elderly Patients

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is collaborating with the 
American Geriatrics Society on a project to develop eight to ten Virtual Patient Cases
(VPCs) to help clinicians across multiple specialties increase their kn o wledge and competence in the delivery of quality care to older adults. Developed by physicians across several specialties, the VPCs focus on "cross-cutting" geriatrics car e topics that represent clinical problems common to older adults and that are relevant to multiple specialty physicians. The VPCs are expected to be published to the GeriatricsCareOnline.org portal in July 2018. Continuing medical education credit will be available to physicians who successfully complete the educational activity.
ahaABMS Portfolio Program Hosts Booth at AHA Leadership Summit

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Multi-Specialty  Portfolio Program (Portfolio Program ™) hosted a booth at the 25th Annual American Hospital Association (AHA)  Leadership Summit held July 27-29 in San Diego. The Summit served as an opp ortunity for David Price, MD, FAAFP, FACEHP, Senior Vice President of ABMS Research and Education Foundation and Executive Director of 
the Portfolio Progr a m, and Susie Flynn, Director of Academic Services, to discuss  the program's benefits with hospital executives and chief medical officers. The Portfolio Program was created to offer physicians who are Board Certified by one of the participating ABMS Member Boards the opportunity to earn Maintenance of Certification Improvement in Medical Practice (Part IV) credit for their involvement in institutional quality and performance improvement activiti es. In April, AHA joined the Portfolio Program enabling hospitals and health systems participating in its Health Research & Educational Trust's Hospital Improvement Innovation Network to offer this opportunity to their physicians. This is the first network of its kind in the country to offer this service to its more than 1,600 participating hospitals. 
qiMOC: A Catalyst for QI Work
By Joseph W. St. Geme, III, MD, Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and Physician-in-Chief at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

The Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program was stimulated by the release of two key publications by the Institute of Medicine ( To Err is Human in 1999 and Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century  in 2001) and the subsequent establishment of the six core competencies  by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education . During the past decade, MOC has undergone substantial evolution, varying to some degree for each of the 24 ABMS Member Boards . During this same period, quality improvement (QI) activities in physician offices, community hospitals, and academic medical centers have increased dramatically.
 
Focusing on the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as an example of an academic medical center, a number of QI initiatives have been established at both the department and hospital level in the past several years.

"My personal perspective is that much of this QI activity has been catalyzed by MOC and the emphasis on physician participation in QI initiatives."
osmosisABMS and Osmosis Create Video on Writing Test Questions

The American  Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has teamed up with Osmosis , a collaborative  learning platform that offers educational content for medical students, to
develop a vi de o   on how to write effective test questions for undergraduate, graduate, 
and continuing m e dical education. This video, which focuses on testing application of  knowledge in patient care rather than just recalling isolated  medical fa cts, is designed to be helpful  in training item writers and reviewers. David Swanson, PhD, ABMS' Vice President of Academic Programs and Services, and Kathy Holtzman, ABMS' Director of Assessment and International Operations, provide suggestions and advice to ensure that your test questions make the grade. 
boardABMS Announces New Board of Directors
 
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) recently announced the election of members to its Board of Directors, which includes representation from each of its 24  Member Boards and members of the public. A new Secretary-Treasurer and six new members were elected and six members, including two public members, were re-elected at the ABMS Board meeting held June 21-22 in San Diego. Additionally, two new and two current Board members were elected to serve on the Executive Committee. All of the ABMS Board members, who are nominated as part of the process, volunteer their time to serve in this capacity.
 
"Our Board of Directors establish and guide the long-term strategic plan for ABMS, enabling us to advance our mission surrounding medical specialty continuing certification in partnership with our Member Boards," said Lois Margaret Nora, MD, JD, MBA, ABMS President and Chief Executive Officer. "Coming from across the country and representing a wide variety of professional disciplines and medical practice areas, our Board members bring to ABMS a broad range of experience in patient care, health policy, business, and community service." See the full list of elected Board members
conferenceFour Plenary Speakers at ABMS Conference 2017

Come for the engaging plenary speakers at ABMS Conference 2017  to be held Sept. 25-27 in Chicago. Stay for the more than 60 sessions on  such topics as continuous learning and physician assessment; initial and continuing Board Certification; quality and practice improvement, patient safety, and related research; and public policy and communications.
 
Plenary speakers, and their topics, are:
  • Pat Mastors, Director of Engagement and Board Chair at the Patients' View Institute in Baltimore, will discuss Do Patients Care about Board Certification? What Do They Want, Need, and Have the Right to Expect?
  • Cees van der Vleuten, PhD, Professor of Education in the Department of Educational Development and Research in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, will review A Journey Towards Programmatic Assessment
  • Lois Margaret Nora, MD, ABMS President and Chief Executive Officer, will discuss My Kind of Town: Tales of Chicago
  • Tom Stewart, Associate Director of Technology Consulting, Security, and Privacy at Protiviti, will discuss Understanding Computer Hacking: The First Step Toward Protecting Your Systems
ABMS Conference 2017  will attract more than 400 health care professionals and leaders from ABMS Member Boards, hospitals and health systems, academic medical centers, specialty societies, and continuing medical education and continuing professional development communities. Register now .



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