In April 2011, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) released [removed]the results of its annual survey[/removed]. This year, 95% of Americans say their doctors should be involved in continuing medical education and should maintain their board certification. I doubt that any of PSP’s readers would disagree.

Nearly half (45%) would look for a new doctor if they learned theirs was not participating in such a program, and 41% would stop referring family and friends to that doctor.

When asked about the importance of the six factors that are part of the MOC program (Professionalism; Patient Care and Procedural Skills; Medical Knowledge; Practice-based Learning and Improvement; Interpersonal and Communications Skills; and Systems-based Practice), 90 percent of consumers say all the factors are important.  The percentages of people who rate individual MOC program factors as “very important” are:

    * testing at regular intervals to assess the doctor’s medical knowledge (60 percent);
    * providing quality of care information to patients/the public (54 percent);
    * periodically assessing the doctor’s clinical performance and quality of care to see how he or she compares with other physicians in the same specialty (51 percent).

Interestingly, when told that some board-certified physicians are not required to participate in an ABMS MOC (Maintenance of Certification) program, 78% of consumers say they would be bothered if their physician chose not to maintain certification. Women were more likely to be bothered than men (83% women versus 72% men).

[removed]Read it all.[/removed]