profession
Public reporting of physician certification status expands
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Sept. 17, 2012
More medical specialty boards are publicly reporting physicians’ maintenance-of-certification status. The American Board of Medical Specialties launched its public reporting effort with seven boards in 2011. Now, 11 additional boards have joined the initiative, the ABMS announced Sept. 5.
“ABMS is meeting its commitment to patients, families and communities by providing easy access to important information about individual doctors,” said ABMS President and CEO Lois Margaret Nora, MD.
The information is available on an ABMS website in a simple format that lists the physician’s name, certifying board and “yes,” “no” or “not required” to a question about whether the physician is meeting MOC standards (link).
The remaining six ABMS member boards plan to make physicians’ MOC status available between now and 2014. Some boards published doctors’ MOC status on their websites before the initiative, but the ABMS website consolidates the information in a central source, Dr. Nora said.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/09/17/prbf0917.htm.