CHICAGO – The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is creating a new measurement tool to incorporate meaningful use into its Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program, which requires physician specialists to conduct an ongoing measurement of six core competencies.

ABMS officials said the not-for-profit organization will work with the three ABMS primary care Member Boards: the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) to develop initial products.

ABMS officials say that incorporating meaningful use into MOC certification may include:

• Developing two new knowledge self-assessment modules to evaluate:

1. A physician's knowledge of health IT for incorporating evidence-based medicine into their practice, decision support and data acquisition, and analysis and reporting related to correct use of the health IT.
2. A physician's knowledge of the uses of health IT to promote patient safety such as computerized physician order entry, medication reconciliation, e-prescribing and coordination of care.

• Augmenting the knowledge self-assessment modules described above with the addition of simulation, creating patient scenarios that demonstrate EHR functionality, including the development and use of a registry for quality improvement that will provide "hands-on" experience for physicians in gaining the skills they need to apply health IT effectively in quality improvement efforts.
   
• Developing data interchange utilities to enable physician submission of Physician Reporting Quality Initiative (PQRI) and health IT meaningful use measures to the Boards in the same format used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This will enable certified physicians to satisfy both PQRI and MOC requirements, and qualify for the PQRI bonus and potentially meaningful use bonus without redundant data submissions.
   
• Expanding and enhancing practice improvement modules (PIMs), which are Web-based self-evaluation tools that guide physicians through collecting data from their own practice using medical chart reviews, patient surveys and a practice system survey to create a comprehensive assessment of current practice performance in a specific clinical area. Select PIMs will be enhanced to enable physicians to use EHRs to track their practice data and improve care.
   

According to ABMS, the meaningful use measures physicians will receive federal incentives for meeting overlap with core competencies that are continually measured through ABMS MOC: patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communications skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice. 

"More than 750,000 U.S. physicians are certified by an ABMS Member Board, so it's readily apparent that building meaningful use of health IT into MOC will benefit patients," said Kevin B. Weiss, MD, ABMS president and CEO. "Aligning MOC and meaningful use of HIT will help to facilitate physicians' knowledge, skill and use of health IT, and in turn can improve physician performance and patient outcomes."