STRAIGHT TALK
RICHARD A. CHAZAL, MD
President, American College Of Cardiology
ABIM Maintenance of
Certification: What’s the
Current Status?
T
he American Board of Internal Medicine’s
(ABIM) Maintenance of Certification
(MOC) process continues to be a topic of
high interest to members of the American College
of Cardiology (ACC.)
Since 2014, the ACC has focused on a threepronged approach to MOC. We have positioned
ourselves as a source of information about MOC.
We have provided tools and resources to help those
members who choose to participate more easily fulfill
MOC requirements. In addition, we have advocated
on behalf of our members to ease the burden of MOC.
The ACC’s Board of Trustees (BOT) has also explored
alternative options to ABIM certification. After careful
investigation, the current decision regarding this option is to continue to engage with ABIM rather than
commit resources to creating an alternative.
Over the past 2.5 years, the ABIM has been receptive to input from the ACC and other similar organizations. This has been manifested by several significant
changes: 1) elimination of the “double jeopardy” provision, which required cardiology diplomates to recertify
in both general cardiology and in their subspecialty;
2) decoupling of the initial board certification from
MOC participation; 3) streamlining the ability for
practitioners to get both continuing medical education
and MOC credit for the same activity; 4) suspending
the requirements for patient safety, patient voice, and
practice improvement activities; and 5) announcing
plans to provide diplomates with an alternative option
Current FACC Participation in ACC MOC Offerings
The use of ACC’s MOC educational offerings has also been robust. By the end of the third quarter of 2015,
nearly one-third of current FACCs have participated in MOC programs which have been offered at no charge
to ACC members since 2015. More recently, attendees at ACC.16 in Chicago were able to seamlessly earn both
MOC and Certified Medical Education (CME) credits at a number of sessions. This type of program will be pursued
aggressively by the College to increase efficient learning for our members.
to the 10-year exam starting in 2018.
In September 2015, the ABIM released the report
of their Assessment 2020 Task Force which made 3
recommendations to the ABIM: 1) exploring alternatives to the current every-10-year MOC assessment;
2) focusing assessments on cognitive skills and technical skills; and 3) recognizing specialization.
The first recommendation of the Assessment 2020
Task Force is being addressed now; however, details
still need to be worked out. The third recommendation
was essentially completed by the elimination of the
“double jeopardy” problem noted above.
The ACC’s current recommendations to the
ABIM are:
• Model the upcoming new, more frequent focused
assessments of cognitive skills after the “SAP” model, using the 2016 ACC Lifelong Learning Clinical
Competencies as the basis of these assessments. An
open-book format is preferable for those diplomates
choosing to take the 10-year exam.
“After careful investigation, the current
decision regarding this option is to
continue to engage with ABIM rather
than commit resources to creating an
alternative.”
44 CardioSource WorldNews
• Enable diplomates to seamlessly receive credit
for activities that they participate in on behalf
of hospitals, health care systems, payers, and
licensure boards.
• Allow the ACC, other professional societies, and
other qualified entities to put forth standards-based
processes that would be recognized by the ABIM.
• Permanently eliminate practice improvement (partIV) activities as a requirement for MOC. Practice
improvement activities are important and will
soon be required of all providers by federal law.
Appropriate practice
improvement activiA longer version of this
ties should be acceptcolumn was published in the
able for fulfillment
May 31 issue of JACC. Read
the complete column by
of MOC participascanning the code:
tion, but a specific
minimum level of
practice improvement
activities should not
be returned to the
list of MOC requirements.
• Undertake research to test the effect of MOC
activities on the actual improvement in patient
care and outcomes to provide an evidence base
for the value of MOC.
The ACC leadership will continue to constructively engage with the ABIM to move the MOC process closer
to supporting the goals of improved patient outcomes,
improved quality of care, and improving the cost-effectiveness of care. ■
June 2016