ABIM ’got it wrong,’ announces changes

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) earlier this week announced changes to its Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program and indicated a desire to work more closely with the internal medicine community. In a letter on the board’s website, ABIM President and CEO Richard J. Baron, MD, sought to open a discussion with the internal medicine community on how to improve MOC.

“ABIM clearly got it wrong. We launched programs that weren't ready and we didn’t deliver an MOC program that physicians found meaningful. We want to change that,” the letter states.
  • Effective immediately, ABIM is suspending the Practice Assessment, Patient Voice, and Patient Safety requirements for at least two years. Diplomates who are currently not certified but who have satisfied all requirements for MOC except for the Practice Assessment requirement will be issued a new certificate this year.
  • Within six months, ABIM will change the language used to publicly report a diplomate's MOC status on its website from “meeting MOC requirements” to “participating in MOC.”
  • The Internal Medicine MOC exam will be updated to be “more reflective of what physicians in practice are doing,” and changes will be incorporated beginning fall 2015, with more subspecialties to follow, the letter states.

In addition, MOC enrollment fees will remain at or below the 2014 levels through at least 2017.

Source: ABIM

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