Recertification process gets physician input

Internal medicine leaders welcome the new era of cooperation and vow to work to preserve the separation of education and evaluation duties.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. May 5, 2003.

A 15-member liaison committee has started meeting to make recommendations for possible changes to recertification of internists.

The committee was formed after the American College of Physicians said the college and subspecialty groups should have more input in the American Board of Internal Medicine's recertification process. The college had entertained the possibility of establishing another path for recertifying physicians.

Committee members, who first met in March, hope to improve the recertification program for board-certified internal medicine physicians, making it more relevant to today's clinical practice.

"We don't want to drive people away from internal medicine by having a burdensome recertification process," said committee member William Golden, MD, professor of medicine and public health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Ark. "It should be an exercise in professional self-renewal and not, in itself, contribute to professional burnout."

Dr. Golden is one of three physicians representing the ACP on the committee. The other members are from the ABIM and internal medicine subspecialty organizations. The group serves in an advisory capacity to the ABIM's Committee on Recertification, recommending new pathways and components for recertification.

Members said the group seems to be putting aside past disputes.

"I found a lot more agreement than disagreement," said John Popovich Jr., of Detroit, liaison committee chair and ABIM board of directors member.