Maintenance of Certification (MOCs)

• About Maintenance of Certification: Maintenance of Certification (MOC), also known as Continuing or Continuous Certification, is the process by which a physician who has initially become board certified in the specialty practice of their choice maintains their board certification status. Accredited CME activities may be registered for MOC credit for Part II: Lifelong Learning and/or Self-Assessment and Part IV: Improvement in Medical Practice provided the activity meets the requirements for various MOC boards and is not an excluded activity type for that board (e.g., American Board of Pediatrics does not allow Performance Improvement CME to count for MOC). Some boards have a requirement to engage in education related to patient safety issues, and those boards allow accredited CME activities to be registered for Patient Safety credit.
  • Core Competencies- The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Program for MOC involves ongoing measurement of six core competencies defined by ABMS and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) which include:
    • Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
    • Patient Care & Procedural Skills
    • Systems-Based Practice
    • Medical Knowledge
    • Interpersonal & Communication Skills
    • Professionalism
  • General Requirements- Accredited CME providers must do all of the following:
    • Attest to compliance with certifying board requirements
    • Agree to collect the required individual learner completion data, including participation verification as well as evaluation and feedback mechanisms, and submit it via PARS
    • Agree to abide by certifying board and ACCME requirements for use of the data
    • Agree to allow ACCME to publish data about the activity on ACCME’s website (www.cmepassport.org), if applicable
    • Agree to comply with requests for information about the activity if the activity is selected for an audit by ACCME
  • Participation Threshold, Evaluation, & Feedback Examples- Participating certifying boards and ACCME share the expectation that accredited providers evaluate the impact of their activities on learners’ competence, performance, or patient outcomes. The following examples of evaluation approaches have been compiled as a resource for accredited providers. These are only examples—and not an exhaustive list—of the methods that can be used by the accredited provider in CME that supports MOC. Some certifying boards may have evaluation requirements in addition to those provided in the table below.