News
“There have always been alternative boards,” Dr. Baron said. “We know that for people to use the ABIM credential, they have to believe in the ABIM credential. When you look at what our credential is, and what other credentials are, there’s a reason that the ABMS credential is the one that most people use, and it has to do with rigor and standards. You can do a comparison of what the new board is asking and draw [your] own conclusion.”
The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) meanwhile, commended ABIM for listening to physicians and making the adjustments, but also expressed support for NBPAS. In a statement, AACE President R. Mack Harrell invited association members to visit the NBPAS website and consider its process.
Dr. R. Mack Harrell
“While AACE will continue to assist ABIM in whatever way we can to improve their MOC pathway, we will also advocate for other viable certification pathways that have relevance for our membership,” Dr. Harrell said in the statement. “At AACE, we believe that our individual members are the best judges of their own continuing educational needs, and our mission is to make sure that a variety of relevant options are available.”
Still other physicians would like to see the complete eradication of maintenance of certification. Ideally, MOC would be a voluntary process only, said Dr. Jonathan Weiss, an internist in private practice who specializes in critical care medicine and pulmonology in Monticello, N.Y. Dr. Weiss is part of an outspoken group of physicians against MOC that have published criticism of the process.
“It’s good there’s the possibility of an alternative,” he said of NBPAS. But “frankly, part of our feeling is we don’t want to be part of any recertification because we think the whole thing is a flawed, phony process. Lawyers don’t have to get “re-barred.” I would rather just be a doctor in good standing ... do my self-directed CME. That should be sufficient.”
On Twitter @legal_med