I want to thank the leaders and members of the College for entrusting me with the presidency. I hope to represent you well. The past year was outstanding under Steve Hanauer’s guidance and I hope to live up the high standard he set.
We are rapidly moving forward as a College on several fronts, one of the most active relates to Maintenance of Certification and the ABIM.
Leaders from the ACG, AGA and ASGE spent Monday, November 2nd in Philadelphia along with leaders from the other major internal medicine societies discussing the future of MOC with ABIM leadership. We are working closely together on this issue. We have provided a joint, multi-society communication to the ABIM outlining our response to their recent report “2020 Task Force Report” advocating for the following key principles:
- MOC needs to be simpler, less intrusive and less expensive
- We support ending the high-stakes, every 10-year exam
- We do not support closed book assessments as they do not represent the current realities of medicine in the digital age
- We support the principles of lifelong learning as evidenced by ongoing CME activities, rather than lifelong testing
- We support the concept that, for the many diplomates who specialize within certain areas of gastroenterology and hepatology, MOC should not need to include high-stakes assessments of areas where the diplomate may not practice
In addition, we will also be providing a more specific ACG response developed by our MOC Task Force led by Neena Abraham. In my comments to the group at yesterday’s meeting, I noted that our membership, which is predominantly clinically focused and has a large representation of community gastroenterologists, has not felt that there is good value provided as part of the MOC process.
ACG will advocate for changes that not only recognize the demands on busy clinicians, but also appreciate that our members are committed to lifelong learning and keeping up with state-of-the-art, evidence-based medicine. With this in mind, I suggested that any changes need to provide real value to clinicians to be acceptable. ACG is at the table representing GI clinicians at the ABIM as together we define the future of MOC. We are fully dedicated to fighting for an acceptable and tolerable system for maintenance of GI Board certification.
Thank you again for your support,
Ken
Kenneth R. DeVault, MD, FACG
ACG President
Read the College’s November 6, 2015 Letter to ABIM