Maintenance of Certification (MOC) — Additional MOC Information Lifelong Learning and MOC: How Do You Fit Them into Your Life? The American Board of Radiology (ABR) requires all diplomates with 10-year, time-limited board certification in diagnostic radiology and its subspecialties to participate in the ABR maintenance of certification (MOC) program. Successful participants demonstrate that they have embarked on a lifelong learning process by earning at least 250 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM and completing 20 self-assessment modules (SAMs) over each 10-year certification cycle. Participants must also maintain unrestricted licenses to practice medicine, pass a computer-based cognitive examination, and engage in practice quality improvement (PQI) projects in their clinical practices.
The ABR requires radiologists to obtain an average of 25 CME credits per year to fulfill the MOC requirements. Of these 25 CME credits, at least 70% must focus on content relevant to the individual's areas of clinical practice.
Ideally, ABR diplomates should complete SAMs at the rate of two per year. In addition, AMA PRA Category 1 Credit earned by completing SAMs may be used to attain the 10-year total of at least 250 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits required for lifelong learning.
However, finding time in a full and active professional and personal life to meet the MOC lifelong learning requirements necessitates a practical, organized approach to ensure that you continue to improve your knowledge in a timely and efficient manner.
The best way to make lifelong learning work for you is to make sure that the education you pursue meets your needs in one of the following ways: It is relevant to your own life; it answers questions that arise in your daily practice; or it fills "holes" in your knowledge base or skill set. Then your MOC activities are not another burden added to your list; they are a tool to address the needs and problems that are on your list already.
Assess Your CME Needs The first step in organizing your learning activities is to assess your CME needs. Take a cold, hard look at your practice, and try to determine what knowledge and skills you need to improve or expand your work and provide the best possible medical care.
My CME Action Plan is a planning tool available on RSNA's Web site that is designed to help you assess your own CME needs. The action plan guides you through a process in which you list your CME requirements, prioritize your educational needs, plan future CME activities, and record MOC-related activities for lifelong learning.
The self-assessment section of My CME Action Plan contains a questionnaire that asks you to estimate the percentage of time you spend interpreting studies or doing procedures in specific areas of imaging practice and to indicate whether your practice emphasis will increase, decrease, or remain the same in the future. You are also asked to estimate the proportion of time you devote to other activities, such as teaching, research, administration, and consulting. You then compare what you are doing with the kind of education you are acquiring.
Guided by these and other questions, you will be able to create your own profile of educational needs and plan your lifelong learning activities for the coming year.
Be Proactive Once you have assessed your needs, the second step is to be proactive in obtaining CME credits and completing SAMs. You will need to search out educational opportunities that meet your assessed learning needs.
The RSNA Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting offers an incomparable opportunity to obtain CME credits in diagnostic radiology and its subspecialties, as well as in radiation oncology and radiologic physics. At the 2006 RSNA Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, for example, each physician could earn up to 85 CME credits. In addition, attendees were able to complete SAMs presented at the meeting. Attendees can use the subspecialty codes assigned to each session to plan an individualized program that matches their own learning plans and practice patterns.
Self-study SAMs are also available on the education portal of RSNA's Web site (MOC). These SAMs consist of peer-reviewed educational materials in a range of subspecialty areas. All RSNA SAMs have been qualified by the ABR as fulfilling MOC requirements for self-assessment and award CME credit for successful completion.
RSNA's education portal also contains an online education resource called InteractED®, which offers RSNA members free peer-reviewed CME programs based on refresher courses, plenary sessions, and special focus sessions presented at the annual meeting, as well as education exhibits, cases of the day, and CME tests from RadioGraphics. Like the RSNA meeting content and the online SAMs, content that is practice-specific can be identified by using the listed subspecialty content codes. Simply go to InteractED.
Coordinate Your Activities After you have completed SAMs and earned CME credits, the final step is to coordinate your activities by recording the credits you have earned and then planning your future educational activities.
In addition to helping you assess your educational needs, My CME Action Plan helps you compare your past CME activities with your current and projected professional activities and identify any perceived gaps in your skills or knowledge so you can plan future activities.
Another online resource valuable for coordinating your educational activities is the RSNA CME Credit Repository. RSNA automatically enters CME and SAM credits earned through RSNA activities into the RSNA CME Credit Repository. As an RSNA member, you can also self-enter CME credits earned from other organizations or your own category 2 self-study credits to create a cumulative CME report.
A third online resource is the CME Gateway. RSNA and several other medical specialty organizations participate in the CME Gateway (CMEgateway.org), which allows you to view, print, and generate reports of CME credits earned from each of the sponsoring organizations to which you belong.
By following these ABCs—Assessing your educational needs, Being proactive, and Coordinating your learning by taking advantage of the educational opportunities and online tools RSNA has to offer—you will be able to tailor your approach to lifelong learning so that it fits into your life and becomes part of your yearly routine.
Useful Web Sites: For additional information on RSNA's MOC resources, call 1-800-272-2920.
