Tag Archives: certification

Bob Wachter has written a lengthy defense of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and its Maintenance of Certification (MOC®) program, addressing contentions that the ABIM may have engaged in questionable financial practices, and that MOC® is irrelevant, time consuming, and onerous.

These allegations, however, are not the only questions board organizations may need to confront.  Along with several recent articles devoted to the topic of professionalism, Wachter’s piece provides us with an opportunity to examine three foundational arguments that board leaders invariably bring forth to justify the commerce of certification.Continue reading “Reasons to MOC®: Board certification revisited”

For those affected or scandalized by the way MOC® programs are being foisted on doctors, the following Wikipedia entry may provide an explanatory frame of reference:

A union security agreement is a contractual agreement, usually part of a union collective bargaining agreement, in which an employer and a trade or labor union agree on the extent to which the union may compel employees to join the union, and/or whether the employer will collect dues, fees, and assessments on behalf of the union.

Of course, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is not a physician union in the strict sense of the term.  From the vantage point of ABMS executives, the situation is far better.  ABMS bosses can impose enrollment into MOC® without needing to grant doctors membership—and therefore voting rights—in the organization.Continue reading “The history behind the MOC®kery”