How Family Medicine Physicians' MOC® Data Are Used Without Their Permission

James Puffer, MD, the President and CEO of the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), gives an account of some of the ways the ABFM uses diplomate data collected from various sources, including their "continuous certification" program in the Winter issue of the American Board of Family Medicine's newsletter, The Phoenix. Not only are data being used without diplomate consent, they are being merged with other databases in uncertain ways. In one case, it appears the data are used to publish data on burnout rather than serving as a potential cause for the phenomenon.

Here's an example from the newsletter:

We have rapidly expanded the data sets that we are gathering to provide us with additional information about the specialty. These have included the Milestones data that we receive from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for every single family medicine resident in training, and data from the Resident Graduate Survey, developed and administered in collaboration with the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD), that characterizes the work of recently graduated family medicine residents. Important examples of the use of these data sets include recent data that we have published on burnout among family physicians, the changing nature of the scope of practice of recently graduated family physicians, and the powerful and long-lasting imprinting that occurs as a function of the environment in which family medicine residents train.

Read the whole thing (Highlighted text mine.)

-Wes

PS: A survey of Board-certified practicing physicians regarding MOC® is still being conducted. If you have not done so already, please complete the survey here.