That time lag and heavy reliance on cognitive exams makes recertification inadequate for ensuring competence in today's health care environment, according to some critics. Work groups are weighing various assessment methods and debating how patient outcomes, quality improvement initiatives and physicians' lifelong learning could be incorporated into the certification process. A game plan for how boards could make this shift is expected to be laid out by September. Dr. Miller acknowledged that expanding certification into clinical assessment won't be easy. Boards haven't looked at outcomes traditionally.
Nobody really knows how to do that.
But it's a challenge the boards seem willing to begin to undertake. Outcomes, CME, satisfaction in focus Details have yet to be hammered out. But task force members envision a system that includes frequent feedback between the boards and physicians. Boards, for example, could require their diplomates to regularly submit patient satisfaction data, specific outcomes indicators and proof of participation in relevant continuing medical education courses. The boards then would use the data in an educational, nonpunitive way, using a pass-fail concept only on the existing exam.