ABFM Examination Asthma Item Performance and Asthma Prevention Quality Indicators in Kentucky

Introduction: The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) certifies and recertifies family physicians in the United States and its territories. This process includes a proc-tored, secure cognitive examination. The 2009 examination included content specific to asthma. We examined performance on these items by Kentucky family physicians and pos-sible correlation with asthma outcomes.Methods: We identified specific asthma content on the 2009 ABFM examination and developed an asthma ability score, , using item response theory. We correlated this performance measure and a poverty measure with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Prevention Quality Indicator (PQI) # 15 (adult asthma hospitalization rates) for Kentucky.Results: The performance measure, , demonstrated an inverse correlation with PQI #15 (ie, high performance correlated with lower asthma hospitalization rates). The pov-erty measure showed a positive correlation with PQI #15.Conclusion: The specialty board certification movement has evolved based on the pre-sumption that specific knowledge contributes to higher quality patient outcomes. However, the evidence for this presumption is limited. Our results indicate that, at least for asthma outcomes for certified Kentucky family physi-cians, asthma knowledge as demonstrated on a recertification matters to Kentucky’s asth-matic patients.