Pediatric Informatics: Computer Applications in Child Health (Health ...

Chapter 14
Supporting Continuing Pediatric Education
and Assessment
Peter S. Greene, Valerie Smothers and Toby Vandemark
Objectives
By the end of this chapter, the reader will be able to:
Describe the role of technology standards in supporting continuing medical
education and maintenance of certification of pediatricians
Identify the organizations involved in developing and applying technology
standards for healthcare education and competence assessment
14.1 Introduction
Numerous organizations are involved in the continuing education and assessment
of pediatricians, yet the information flow among them is often inefficient or
nonexistent. Professional societies, academic medical centers and other Continuing
Medical Education (CME) providers support continuing professional development
(CPD). Certification boards, such as the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP), are
commissions that set standards for assessment, certification and periodic recertification
of physicians’ competence to deliver high quality care within a medical or
surgical specialty. 1 Licensing boards are organizations charged with protecting the
public that determine jurisdictional and legal requirements physicians must meet
to practice medicine. 2
Each of these organizations is dependent on data managed by the others.
Licensing boards require data on approved CME activities, specialty certifications
and other state licenses in order to grant medical licenses. Certification boards also
require CME data, as well as practice improvement and other professional activities
and licensure/certification data from other boards. Umbrella organizations, such as
the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the American Board of Medical
Specialties (ABMS) collect disciplinary action and certification data respectively
from their member boards for sharing with other organizations, 3, 4 such as hospital
credentialing committees. The combined effort for this interorganizational data
C.U. Lehmann et al. (eds.), Pediatric Informatics: Computer Applications 197
in Child Health, Health Informatics,
© Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009