Using feedback collected from American Board of Family Medicine Diplomates, the authors analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from 320,500 surveys of family physicians who completed a Self-Assessment Module (SAM) between January 2004 and April 2013. Currently, to maintain board certification, physicians must meet standards that revolve around the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Program for maintenance of certification (MOC). To date, there has been little published evidence regarding the experience of American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) diplomates with Maintenance of Certification for Family Physicians (MC-FP).

The results from this study revealed overall positive experiences with SAM activities, with Knowledge Assessment (KA) components receiving higher satisfaction scores than the Clinical Simulation (CS) activities. Positive comments about SAM activities outnumbered negative comments two to one. However, while SAM activities were rated positively overall, there was great variability between individual modules. On average, SAMs with greater discordance between educational material addressed in the KA and CS components received lower ratings from Diplomates, CS components across all modules received negative comments regarding technical issues with the online testing platform.

The complete article can be found here.

Correspondence and inquiries should be addressed to E. Marshall Brooks, PhD, VCU Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, One Capital Square Building, 830 East Main Street, Rm 628, Richmond, VA 23219-0101