Maintenance of Certification (MOC) | Heart Rhythm Society

Maintenance of Certification (MOC)

Maintenance of Certification Program

Committed to finding viable solutions that work for our member community, HRS wants its members to get back to taking care of their patients rather than trying to navigate the complexities of the MOC process or spending countless hours away from their practices.

The MOC program was created by ABIM to provide physicians with a pathway to know that they are staying current in the medical knowledge used to treat patients and make important care decisions daily.

American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM)

The MOC program was created with effort from thousands of physicians within the US. It offers physicians with a pathway to recognize that they are staying current in the medical knowledge they use to treat patients and make important care decisions daily.

The program has evolved to include a new assessment option and an increased recognition of the work doctors do every day.

HRS Position

HRS recognizes that there is a place for a meaningful and reasonable recertification process, and HRS leadership continues to champion the concerns of HRS physicians certified by the ABIM and ABP.

HRS is committed to lifelong learning and to the belief that MOC should be awarded for continuous learning, with immediate (formative) assessments rather than periodic "high-stakes " summative examinations that cover the full breadth of the field of electrophysiology. HRS has advocated for assessments with the following features:

  • The assessment should be modular instead of covering the full breadth of the field.
  • Modules should be customizable, including core content and content relevant to practice.
  • An open-book approach should be employed.
  • Alternatives to camera monitoring to ensure security should be used.

Although the EP SAP offering is not customizable and is still modeled as a "summative assessment," it comes closer to meeting the needs and preferences of HRS members than the alternatives. It is open-book and modular and relies entirely on the didactic content presented in the product so it is not necessary to study from multiple sources. In addition, camera monitoring is not required.

HRS Members and Board Certification: Background

The Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) has a diverse set of members, but the largest group is comprised of physicians certified in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology (CCEP) from the United States.

Board certification is intended to ensure that health care professionals achieve and maintain common standards for patient care. Certification for CCEPs is provided by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) which operates as one of the 24 member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) to maintain standards for professional certification.

25% of all U.S. physicians are certified by the ABIM. To achieve initial ABIM certification in CCEP, a physician must first be certified in both Internal Medicine (IM) and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), although certification may be maintained in CCE only.

The ABMS mandates that its member boards implement a four-part Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program, and each member board creates its own policies and procedures governing MOC. In 2014, the ABIM introduced a host of new requirements that many physicians considered too burdensome, too costly, not based upon evidence and not relevant to practice. After a strong backlash, many of the new requirements were shelved by the ABIM in early 2015. Medical society advocacy on behalf of members is one reason for those changes.

Additional Resources

American Board of Pediatrics (ABP)

Purpose
Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment (Part 2) of Maintenance of Certification (MOC) is designed to help pediatricians assess and enhance the clinical knowledge and skills important to their individual practices, using activities developed by the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) and other organizations.

Points
You must earn at least 40 points for Part 2 activities every five years, regardless of how many certifications you want to maintain. If you have more than one certification, the same five-year cycle will apply to all your certifications.

To learn more about Part 2 Credit visit How to Earn MOC Part 2 Credit