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

200 P.S. Greene et al.
14.2.4 Standard for Coordinating and Tracking
Competence Assessment Data
14.2.4.1 Healthcare Professional Profile
The Professional Profile simplifies the exchange of member or healthcare
professional name, address, contact, education, training, certification, licensure,
disciplinary action, academic appointment, occupation, and membership information
by providing a common data format. With this building block, certifying,
assessment, and licensing boards can better exchange competence assessment data
and coordinate their activities.
14.3 Educational and Assessment Standards
for Pediatric CPD
14.3.1 Maintenance of Certification
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is the US regulatory organization
that establishes quality standards for physician certification. It consists of
24 specialty member boards (including the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP),
which is charged with credentialing and certification of general and specialty pediatricians
solely and in conjunction with other specialty boards).
In 1998, the ABMS and its member boards, including the ABP, adopted a plan
to develop and implement Maintenance of Certification (MOC) processes for
ongoing certification of physician specialists to ensure that physicians maintain the
competencies necessary to provide quality patient care in their area of certification.
Maintenance of Certification consists of four parts:
Evidence of professional standing, such as a license to practice medicine
Evidence of a commitment to lifelong learning and self assessment to guide
learning
Evidence of cognitive expertise based on exam performance
Evidence of evaluation of performance in practice 6
IT standards for healthcare education and competence assessment are currently
being developed and used to track certification data, to reconcile physician identity
records across organizations and to coordinate education and assessment activities.
As part of its transition to MOC, the ABP must track information about pediatrician
certification activities for primary (general or specialty) and secondary
( specialty) certificates they may hold.
Other organizations may deliver self-assessments and quality improvement activities
that the ABP may accept to fulfill MOC requirements and licensure. The ABP is
working with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a developer or pediatric