TY - JOUR T1 - Maintenance of Certification for Family Physicians (MC-FP) Self Assessment Modules (SAMs): The First Year JF - The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine JO - J Am Board Fam Med SP - 398 LP - 403 DO - 10.3122/jabfm.19.4.398 VL - 19 IS - 4 AU - Michael D. Hagen AU - Douglas J. Ivins AU - James C. Puffer AU - Jason Rinaldo AU - Guy H. Roussel AU - Walton Sumner AU - Jinzhong Xu Y1 - 2006/07/01 UR - http://www.jabfm.org/content/19/4/398.abstract N2 - Introduction: In 2000, the American Board of Medical Specialties adopted Maintenance of Certification (MOC) to replace intermittent, periodic recertification. MOC consists of 4 components: demonstration of professionalism (part I); commitment to life-long learning (part II); demonstration of cognitive expertise (part III); and evaluation of performance in practice (part IV). The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) implemented Maintenance of Certification for Family Physicians (MC-FP) in 2004, with its MC-FP part II self-assessment modules (SAMs) as the focus of the first year’s activities.Methods: The SAMs use materials and resources provided at the ABFM’s website (www.theabfm.org). As of April 2005, ∼7000 Diplomates had successfully completed SAMs in essential hypertension (N = 2351) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (N = 4648). Participants completed categorical modified Likert scale evaluations to receive continuing education credit, and many offered unstructured free-text comments regarding the clinical simulation component. These free-text comments were entered into the AnSWR qualitative analysis program from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Text coding was performed by 2 authors (MDH, DJI). As no inferential analyses or comparisons were anticipated, the authors conducted no studies of inter-rater consistency. Results are reported as means (SD) and medians for continuous data, and as frequencies for count data.Results: Likert-scale ratings indicated generally favorable responses (predominantly 5 to 6 on a 6-point scale) to the hypertension and diabetes SAMs. In addition, over half (ie, 55% for hypertension and 54% for diabetes participants) of the respondents indicated that the experience would lead to changes in their practices. Navigation and system operation issues predominated in the free-text comments offered for the diabetes and hypertension simulations.Conclusion: The MC-FP SAMs received generally favorable ratings in the program’s first year. The SAMs underwent a number of modifications and improvements during the first year, largely in response to feedback and suggestions from ABFM Diplomates. ER -