Address Maintenance of Certification at Internal Medicine 2012
Three new online Maintenance of Certification modules associated with this year's annual meeting will allow attendees to focus their learning on the most needed areas, with immediate feedback available.
There are a few good reasons not to wait until the last minute to plan an itinerary for Internal Medicine 2012. For the first time ever, meeting attendees will be able to earn points toward the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Self-Evaluation of Medical Knowledge requirement for Maintenance of Certification (MOC).
On April 2, 2012, three modules of multiple-choice questions will be posted online. Each of the questions will be linked to the title of an Internal Medicine session, during which content relevant to that question will be covered.
This mechanism will allow attendees to focus their learning during the meeting on their most needed areas, explained Barbara Licht, ACP's director of educational meetings and conferences.
“You could build your annual meeting schedule by identifying the questions you aren't sure of and going to those sessions,” she said. “It's a good way to identify your strengths and weaknesses.”
After the meeting, attendees can go back to the website and complete the modules. Immediate feedback is provided on whether responses are right or wrong, and any module that is completed at least 60% correctly can be submitted through an electronic link to ABIM to apply for MOC credit. Anyone scoring below 60% can clear their answers and retake the entire module.
“Attendees can earn 10 MOC points for each module, so they can earn up to 30 MOC points,” said Ms. Licht. “These modules are free to all attendees and are only accessible to attendees.”
Some advance planning will also be required to take part in the newest pre-course to join the Internal Medicine slate. On Tuesday, April 17, Elizabeth Billingsley, MD, of Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania, will teach a day-long session on dermatology, including dermatology problems common to primary care, biopsy techniques and cutaneous manifestations of systemic diseases.
On Wednesday, the popular hospitalist track of the meeting will kick off with a pre-course led by James Newman, MD, FACP, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “Building on the concept of the patient-centered conference used in last year's pre-course, physicians from New Orleans medical centers and from around the country will follow the hospitalization of a Vietnamese fisherman living in New Orleans East. We will discuss hematology, hepatology, infectious disease, critical care, cultural competency, safety and more, all through the lens of one inpatient admission,” Dr. Newman said.
Then on Thursday, the official meeting begins with a keynote lecture by Wayne J. Riley, MD, MACP, MBA, president and chief executive officer of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. Meharry is the nation's largest, private, independent, historically black academic health center.
After Dr. Riley's talk, meeting attendees can choose from the usual buffet of educational offerings, including updates in the subspecialties, Multiple Small Feedings of the Mind, the Waxman Clinical Skills Center and the ever-popular Doctor's Dilemma competition—likely to be followed by some actual buffets, given that New Orleans was recently appointed “The Tastiest City of the South.”
