ABMS to Add HIT to Certification Program

The Chicago-based American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) intends to create tools to promote the meaningful use of health information technology (HIT) and incorporate them into ABMS Maintenance of Certification (ABMS MOC), a program created by ABMS and its 24 Member Boards to promote lifelong learning and self assessment for physician specialists. More than 750,000 U.S. physicians are currently certified by the ABMS Member Board.

ABMS will foster the development of new measurement tools or enhancement of existing activities to promote meaningful use of HIT, 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) developing initial products. These three boards will develop knowledge self-assessment modules to evaluate, among other areas, incorporating evidence-based medicine into their practice, knowledge of computerized physician order entry (CPOE), medication reconciliation, and e-prescribing.