The ABFM’s new Continuous Knowledge Self-Assessment (CKSA), a self-assessment and lifelong learning activity, will launch on January 19, 2017. The CKSA is designed to deliver a set of 25 questions each quarter. There is no passing or failing for this activity. After independently completing 100 CKSA questions, a performance report will be provided to the physician summarizing their results by certification examination blueprint categories to help family physicians identify gaps in their knowledge.

What you need to know:

• Access the CKSA via your portfolio (and soon your mobile app!), and the program will guide you through answering each question in order.
• Each multiple-choice question (MCQ) in the CKSA will require a single best answer response. The correct answer will be provided after each question is answered along with a critique describing the rationale for the correct option. A comment feature will allow family physicians to share their opinions on concepts relating to each question.
• A physician may start, stop or resume the assessment questions at any time during the 3-month period.
• Complete all 25 questions during the 3-month activity window and receive 2.5 certification points that can be applied to the 50 points required for the 3-year stage.
• Complete all 25 questions for each of the four quarters throughout the year and receive a total of 10 certification points, satisfying the minimum 1 Knowledge Self-Assessment (KSA) requirement for that stage.
• Continuously participate in the CKSA throughout the entire 3-year certification stage and receive 30 certification points, leaving only a Performance Improvement activity needed to complete family medicine certification requirements.

The CKSA will be added to the suite of options for completing the self-assessment requirement for Continuous Certification. The CKSA is designed to help physicians identify their personal strengths and weaknesses in medical knowledge and clinical decision-making within the framework of broad spectrum family medicine, so that they can target subsequent continuing medical education in those areas. The questions will be developed using the certification examination blueprint and will be similar in format to those seen on the certification examination. The performance report provided once a physician has participated in 100 questions, four different CKSA quarters, will estimate how a physician would likely score on the certification examination, estimate one’s probability of passing the certification examination, and compute an index related to how accurate a physician’s confidence was regarding the correctness of their answers.

Completing the 25 questions can be done throughout the 3-month quarter in a manner that best suits the individual physician i.e. questions can be completed whenever and wherever it is convenient for the physician. If a physician prefers to answer two questions per week over morning coffee, then an automatic reminder can be set up to deliver two questions a week. On the other hand, those that wish to complete a small number of questions per month can receive monthly reminders to answer questions. If one wishes to answer all 25 questions at one sitting while on a long road trip over the summer (while riding in the passenger’s seat of course!), that can be accommodated as well. Overall, the manner of the CKSA administration is intended to be both more user-friendly, as well as more continuous in nature.