Diplomate Spotlight Opening Doors with Board Certification: A Conversation with Long Standing Diplomate Joseph Cook Read Opening Doors with Board Certification: A Conversation with Long Standing Diplomate Joseph Cook
Phoenix Newsletter - July 2025 Available Now: 2026 5-Year Cycle Registration Read Available Now: 2026 5-Year Cycle Registration
Home Research Research Library How Physicians Prepare for Maintenance of Certification Exams: A Qualitative Study How Physicians Prepare for Maintenance of Certification Exams: A Qualitative Study 2019 Author(s) Chesluk, Benjamin J, Eden, Aimee R, Hansen, Elizabeth Rose, Johnson, Michele L, Reddy, Siddharta G, Bernabeo, Elizabeth C, and Gray, Bradley M Topic(s) Family Medicine Certification, Achieving Health System Goals, and What Family Physicians Do Keyword(s) Cognitive Expertise, Physician Experience (Burnout / Satisfaction), and Qualitative Volume Academic Medicine Source Academic Medicine PURPOSE: Little is known about how board-certified physicians prepare for their periodic maintenance of certification (MOC) examinations. This qualitative study explores how physicians experience MOC exam preparation: how they prepare for the exams and decide what to study and how exam preparation compares with what they normally do to keep their medical knowledge current. METHOD: Between September 2016 and March 2017, the authors interviewed 80 primary care physicians who had recently taken either the American Board of Family Medicine or American Board of Internal Medicine MOC exam. They analyzed transcripts and notes from these interviews looking for patterns and emergent themes, using the constant comparative method and a social practice theory perspective. RESULTS: Most interviewees studied for their MOC exams by varying from their routines for staying current with medical knowledge, both by engaging with a different scope of information and by adopting different study methods. Physicians described exam preparation as returning to a student/testing mindset, which some welcomed and others experienced negatively or with ambivalence. CONCLUSIONS: What physicians choose to study bounds what they can learn from the MOC exam process and, therefore, also bounds potential improvements to their patient care. Knowing how physicians actually prepare, and how these activities compare with what they do when not preparing for an exam, can inform debates over the value of requiring such exams, as well as conversations about how certification boards and other key stakeholders in physicians’ continuing professional development could improve the MOC process. Read More ABFM Research Read all 2013 The ABFM begins to use differential item functioning Go to The ABFM begins to use differential item functioning 2013 Do residents who train in safety net settings return for practice? Go to Do residents who train in safety net settings return for practice? 2016 “the End of the Beginning” for Clinical Simulation in the Abfm Self-Assessment Modules (Sams) Go to “the End of the Beginning” for Clinical Simulation in the Abfm Self-Assessment Modules (Sams) 2021 Uniting Public Health and Primary Care for Healthy Communities in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond Go to Uniting Public Health and Primary Care for Healthy Communities in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond
Author(s) Chesluk, Benjamin J, Eden, Aimee R, Hansen, Elizabeth Rose, Johnson, Michele L, Reddy, Siddharta G, Bernabeo, Elizabeth C, and Gray, Bradley M Topic(s) Family Medicine Certification, Achieving Health System Goals, and What Family Physicians Do Keyword(s) Cognitive Expertise, Physician Experience (Burnout / Satisfaction), and Qualitative Volume Academic Medicine Source Academic Medicine
ABFM Research Read all 2013 The ABFM begins to use differential item functioning Go to The ABFM begins to use differential item functioning 2013 Do residents who train in safety net settings return for practice? Go to Do residents who train in safety net settings return for practice? 2016 “the End of the Beginning” for Clinical Simulation in the Abfm Self-Assessment Modules (Sams) Go to “the End of the Beginning” for Clinical Simulation in the Abfm Self-Assessment Modules (Sams) 2021 Uniting Public Health and Primary Care for Healthy Communities in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond Go to Uniting Public Health and Primary Care for Healthy Communities in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond
2013 The ABFM begins to use differential item functioning Go to The ABFM begins to use differential item functioning
2013 Do residents who train in safety net settings return for practice? Go to Do residents who train in safety net settings return for practice?
2016 “the End of the Beginning” for Clinical Simulation in the Abfm Self-Assessment Modules (Sams) Go to “the End of the Beginning” for Clinical Simulation in the Abfm Self-Assessment Modules (Sams)
2021 Uniting Public Health and Primary Care for Healthy Communities in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond Go to Uniting Public Health and Primary Care for Healthy Communities in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond
