To access the Elluminate discussion site:

http://elm.elluminate.com/HOSTEDUSC/

For class, there are 3 articles to read.

Optional article: Discussion of disclosure of gifts. An ongoing headache and we have not heard the last of it.

Disclosure.pdf

AMA CEJA report (2011): House of delegates: you  will need to Google this site and it will take you to the report. It discussess independence of CME from commercial influence.

Here is the actual  ceja report: including the executive summary

ceja-2011.pdf

Two articles from the NEJM in April, 2010 discuss Maintenance of Certification and also maintenance of competence. These  will be the main discussion items, so please read them. The Levinson has 2 parts; thus two becomes 3.

Drazen_NEJM_2010.pdf

Levinson_NEJM_2010_ABIM_MOC_-1.pdf

The Federation of State Medical Boards weighs in with Maintenance of Licensure (my summary here). This is an "Oh, no" article. So you thought you could get away with not signing up for MOC?

Choose one of these to read:

mol-bg.pdf

MOL3.pdf

mol-2.pdf

Optional: Two recent (and fun) articles on humor in medicine.These may help a little.

 Humor2.pdf

Help_Doctors1.pdf

The NEJM contains two essays that discuss certification. Drazen comments on them.

One essay is by several department chairs:

They argue that physicians with

time-unlimited certification should voluntarily

become recertified because it will enhance their

knowledge base, provide a reason to systematically

examine their practice, and set an example

for their younger colleagues.

The authors of the

second essay — the dean of a major medical

school, a professor involved in the practice and

teaching of primary care, and a physician in active

daily practice — argue that the MOC program,

as currently constituted, is not relevant to

physicians’ practice, emphasizes the recall of

facts rather than the use of available information,

and takes time and money that are better

spent elsewhere.

Consider these 6 questions for our discussion:

1. What are the reasons that physicians resist voluntarily taking the MOC?

2. What elements of practice, if any, are absent from the MOC exam?

3. How do you feel about recertification and how would you advise someone with a time unlimited certificate? What  would you choose, why?

4. Levinson comments that the biggest issues in signing up for the MOC are 'cost, time, relevance and fear', do you agree?

5. She also comments that  

"What physicians think they know and do in

practice does not match what they actually know

and do. In fact, physicians are not good at assessing

their own skills — fewer than 30% of

physicians examine their own performance

data, and physicians’ ability to independently

and accurately assess and evaluate themselves

has been shown to be poor. Furthermore, physicians

typically overestimate their compliance

with quality standards." Do you agree or disagree, why?

6. What is your opinion about the two articles related to humor, if you decided to read them?