Grant aids effort to share licensing data

Leaders of the Federation of State Medical Boards saw a greater need to make it easier to access physician credentials after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Nov. 13, 2006.

The Federation of State Medical Boards received $1 million in federal money to examine ways to reduce licensing barriers for doctors who practice telemedicine or are licensed in more than one state.

The three-year grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration's Office for the Advancement of Telehealth will pay for proposals by two groups of medical boards seeking to improve how boards share information for physician licensing, the FSMB said. The federation, medical boards and a telemedicine group also are contributing more than $785,000 to the project.

The medical boards want to develop one central database that would provide boards with quick access to credentials that confirm a doctor's qualifications to practice. Two groups of medical boards are working on separate projects but will be under the federation's guidance.

The federation said the system would lessen paperwork and time needed to issue medical licenses and would make it easier for doctors to have their credentials verified in multiple states.

"These pilot efforts are both a help to the physician and the medical board," said Dale Austin, FSMB senior vice president and chief operating officer. "We're trying to seek ways to expedite and simplify [the process]."