ABMS Awarded Federal Contract to Align Certification Tools with MU

The Chicago-based American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) announced today a contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to align the meaningful use of health information technology (HIT) and the ABMS Maintenance of Certification (ABMS MOC) program, which was created by ABMS and its 24 Member Boards to promote lifelong learning and self assessment for physician specialists. The contract was awarded by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for HIT.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and other federal programs reward physicians for “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs) and other technology to guide improvements in public health, quality and safety, engagement of patients and families, and coordination of care, while preserving privacy and security. These dimensions overlap with the six core competencies that are continually measured through the ABMS MOC program and include: professionalism, patient care and procedural skills, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communications skills, and systems-based practice.

More than 750,000 U.S. physicians are certified by an ABMS Member Board. ABMS will foster the development of new measurement tools or enhancement of existing activities to promote meaningful use of HIT, with three ABMS 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.