Maintenance of certification: how do we teach practicing physicians?

Abstract

Maintenance of certification (MOC) has become increasingly important in medicine to ensure maintenance of competence throughout a physician’s career. This paper reviews current issues and challenges associated with MOC in medicine, including how to define medical competencies for practicing physicians,  assessment, and how to best support physicians’s lifelong learning in a continuous and self-motivated way. We explore how the combination of self-monitoring, regular feedback, and peer support could improve self assessment.  Effective MOC programs  are  learner-driven, focused on every day practice, and incorporate educational principles. We discuss the importance of MOC to the physicians’ actual practice to improve acceptability. We review the benefits of  tailored programs as well as decentralization of MOC programs to better characterize the physician’s practice. Lastly, we discuss the value of simulation-based medical education in MOC programs. Simulation-based education could be used to practice uncommon complications, life-threatening scenarios, non-technical skills improvement, and become proficient with new technology. As learners find simulation experiences educationally valuable, clinically relevant, and positive, simulation could be a way  of increasing physicians’ participation in MOC programs.