Evolving Certification to Meet Today’s Needs: The ABFM’s KSA Revision Initiative

摘要

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) implemented the Maintenance of Certification Program as a way to provide a comprehensive approach to lifelong learning, self-assessment, and quality improvement for physicians in all specialties.1 As demonstrated in a systematic review of 62 studies, physician knowledge, skills, and adherence to evidence-based medicine tend to decline as a function of time from initial training.2 In addition, there is robust evidence that physicians, like other experts, are inaccurate in their own self-assessment—we simply do not always realize what we don’t know.3 Thus, a key role of Board Certification is to provide a guided, objective, independent, self-assessment program that goes beyond traditional, self-selected continuing medical education (CME). Ongoing self-assessment also supports acquisition of new knowledge and skills as changes in medical knowledge necessitate changes in practice, and it reinforces a broad knowledge base when physicians’ scope of practice narrows over time. Participation in continuous certification empowers physicians to develop their own learning strategies supported by tools that can help direct their lifelong learning, while at the same time helping to assure the public they have demonstrated that they have the tools to provide high-quality care.