The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has announced that it will incorporate tools to promote the meaningful use of health IT into its maintenance-of-certification (MOC) program.
The Chicago-based organization represents 24 member boards, including the American Board of Radiology (ABR) in Tucson, AZ. In total, more than 750,000 U.S. physicians are certified by an ABMS member board.
Aligning certification maintenance and meaningful use of healthcare IT will help improve physician performance and patient outcomes, according to Kevin Weiss, MD, ABMS president and CEO.
Educational tools being considered include self-assessment modules, simulation tools that demonstrate electronic health record functionality, and a registry for quality improvement that will provide hands-on experience.
ABMS is also considering developing data interchange utilities to enable physician submission of Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and healthcare IT meaningful use measures to the boards in the same format used by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This would enable certified physicians to satisfy both PQRI and MOC requirements, as well as qualify for bonuses without redundant data submissions.
Related Reading
Final meaningful use rules: What radiologists need to know, July 29, 2010
CMS issues final 'meaningful use' EHR rules, July 13, 2010
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