Trending issues in medicine 2015 – #4 MOC

Maintenance of certification has created great controversy over the past 2 years.  Rather than discuss the pros and cons of ABIM and ABMS, their decision making, and money, I prefer to give my opinions on what physicians need and what organized medicine should provide. Here are my assumptions.  I finished my residency in 1978 and became board certified that year.  While an academician, I have done both outpatient practice and inpatient supervision.  Over the past 20+ years, I have averaged rounding the equivalent of around 120 days each year.  I have the final responsibility for major decisions and care for patients with a wide disease spectrum. We all need to stay current in our field.  Medicine has changed dramatically since I received board certification.  I have a responsibility to stay current of significant new findings that should impact how I deliver care and order diagnostic testing. Internal medicine is a vast field.  Internists tend to sculpt their individual practices.  We should know when to call for help.  We do not need to know the latest cancer chemotherapy regimens unless we are oncologists.  We need to know to search for side effects for drugs that we do not know. We often do not know what we need to know.  The medical literature is vast, and we do not have time to read even a modest fraction. Summative evaluations – the “secure examination” create great anxiety in many physicians.  While they likely correlate with our practic...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs