Diplomate Digest - The American Board of Ophthalmology Blog

After 25 years in ophthalmology, busy Oregon-based glaucoma specialist J. Kevin McKinney, MD, had seen it all. But it was something the American Board of Ophthalmology diplomate didn’t see that troubled him — enough data on patients who could be at risk for retinal damage after taking hydroxychloroquine. So, with his team at Eye Health Northwest, Dr. McKinney set out to develop ways to better identify and monitor patients considered high-risk for retinal toxicity. To start, D

American Board of Ophthalmology Diplomate J. Kevin McKinney, MD, will receive the annual John G. Clarkson Award for Quality Improvement at the 2019 American Academy of Ophthalmology Meeting in San Francisco. Dr. McKinney, a glaucoma specialist and comprehensive ophthalmologist at Eye Health Northwest in Portland, OR, will be honored during the MOC Learning Lounge on Monday, October 14 at 4:00 PM for his successful project to improve documentation for patients taking chloroqui

The American Board of Ophthalmology will once again host a Learning Lounge during the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Annual Meeting, open to any diplomate interested in learning more about maintaining certification. Led by CEO George B. Bartley, MD, and MOC Committee Chair Andreas K. Lauer, MD, along with staff and directors of the ABO, the session will walk attendees through the updates and improvements to the recertification process, including the elimination of the 10

The American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) is pleased to announce the availability of new options for earning Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Part IV credit. Through continued collaboration with the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), the ABO has added two AAO-sponsored online learning activities to the Improvement in Medical Practice Menu. Selecting and completing one of these activities will satisfy one ABO MOC Part IV activity requirement. The available AAO activiti

One option to complete an Improvement in Medical Practice activity for Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Part IV credit is to design your own Improvement in Medical Practice project using a standard quality improvement methodology, such as the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle. If you are connected to the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s IRIS® Registry, you are encouraged to base your project on the monthly performance rates on clinical quality measures and quality improvem

In 2019, the American Board of Ophthalmology introduced two new incentives for Quarterly Questions participation which offer you the opportunity to claim additional credit for meeting Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements in Patient Safety (Part II) and Improvement in Medical Practice (Part IV). Completion of the Quarterly Questions program already satisfies MOC Part III. Here’s how the incentive works: Step 1: Participate in the 2019 Quarterly Questions Program N

The American Board of Ophthalmology’s Quarterly Questions program is both a learning activity and a longitudinal assessment tool that serves as the heart of the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) process. As of 2019, the Quarterly Questions program officially replaces the DOCK Examination. Available online, on-demand, and completed at your own pace, the Quarterly Questions program invites participants to answer clinical practice-related knowledge questions and enhance ophthal

Excellence begins at board certification, but it doesn’t end there. For physicians, what it means to be excellent advances with every new discovery and technological breakthrough. To offer patients the highest levels of care in ophthalmology, board-certified ophthalmologists adapt and improve on a lifelong continuum. So, too, does the program for Maintenance of Certification (MOC). What started as a regimented sequence of activities and assessments in the 1990s has evolved in

The impetus for board certification in American medicine did not come from the federal government or even public watchdogs. It arose more than a century ago from practicing physicians like you who wanted to address concerns about the qualifications and training of individuals claiming to be specialists in ophthalmology. In the early 1900s, leaders of our profession came together and established a framework for board certification in a medical specialty that would go on to set

The American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) will partner with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) in 2019 to expand opportunities for ABO-Certified ophthalmologists to earn Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credit for participating in continuing medical education (CME) activities that meet ABO standards. The new collaboration is designed to increase the number and diversity of accredited CME activities that meet the requirements for ABO MOC and

If you attended the American Board of Ophthalmology’s Learning Lounge at AAO 2018 last month, you were among the first to hear about the improvements coming to the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program in 2019. In response to the feedback of the diplomate community in ophthalmology, and thanks to the hard work of your peer content writers and reviewers, the ABO looks forward to the January release of a 2019 recertification program that enhances the diplomate experience,

When cornea specialist Sahar Kohanim, MD, MPH, noticed a high number of patients experiencing severe corneal ulcers due to exposure keratopathy in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) she set out to make changes. Collaborating with residents and medical students, she designed an Improvement in Medical Practice project for Maintenance of Certification to quantify and reduce the incidence of exposure keratopathy-related corneal ulceration. “Exposure keratopathy is completely preventab

Are you using the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s (AAO) IRIS® Registry to examine your performance on quality measures? If so, your data could serve as the foundation for an American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) Improvement in Medical Practice project for Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credit--one that also counts toward the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). In a recent EyeNet article, the AAO outlines the specific steps you should take to create a project

Practice improvement activities encourage continuous improvement of patient care. Working through the steps of an improvement activity, you will learn how to measure your practice performance, use data to identify opportunities for improvement, and implement interventions that improve your care processes or patient outcomes. The ABO encourages you to create an improvement activity relevant to your practice type and environment. If you enjoy working with data, you might wish t

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) launched a new Continuing Certification Directory this month. The site hosts CME opportunities that have been approved by one or more ABMS Member Boards for Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credit, including the American Board of Ophthalmology. The ABMS Continuing Certification Directory provides access to high quality, practice-relevant, accredited CME activities. You can easily browse activities that the ABO has approved fo

Maintenance of Certification (MOC) encourages board-certified ophthalmologists to advance their excellence in knowledge, skills, and practice. Activities adhere to a structured, four-part framework developed by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS): 1) Professionalism & Professional Standing; 2) Lifelong Learning & Self-Assessment; 3) Assessment of Knowledge, Judgment, & Skills, and 4) Improvement in Medical Practice. For ophthalmologists, this means completing the

The American Board of Ophthalmology will award its first-ever John G. Clarkson, M.D. Quality Improvement Award to diplomate Shree Kurup, M.D., this fall for his efforts in creating a project to improve patient compliance with follow-up dosages of immunosuppression medications. The Clarkson Quality Improvement Award celebrates the passion, pride, and professionalism exemplified by American Board of Ophthalmology diplomates in their efforts to continuously improve the practice

Have you tried the American Board of Ophthalmology’s newest pilots for improving practice performance and assessing ophthalmic knowledge? Two optional programs are designed to help diplomates develop customized improvement projects and another works to build and measure current ophthalmic knowledge. More than 1100 of your colleagues have enrolled in one or more of these programs. Data-driven options for customizing improvement Over the 10-year cycle, every diplomate completes

Did you know that you can use the American Academy of Ophthalmology's IRIS® Registry dashboard to create your own Improvement in Medical Practice activity for MOC? The measure performance report in your registry dashboard provides a data-entry-free way to create a personalized improvement project. Check out this AAO article for more information on how to turn your registry insights into MOC credit: https://www.aao.org/iris-registry/news/article/how-to-use-your-iris-registry-d

The American Board of Ophthalmology is now accepting sign-ups from up to 20 diplomates interested in piloting the development of a customized quality improvement project based on patient feedback for Maintenance of Certification (MOC) practice improvement credit. Here's how it works: Click here to register for the pilot. (Signing up now will not require you to complete the pilot. We just want to make sure we follow up with you to provide all the information and instructions y