ABOUT

The Physicians for Certification Change (PCC) are board certified or board eligible physicians from all specialties who are concerned about the recent changes to Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements. Our goal is to influence certification organizations like the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) to change their policy regarding MOC.  We believe recent requirements are onerous, expensive and lack value.  While we do not have complete agreement on every recommendation, most members of PCC believe MOC should be changed in the following manner:

  •  Allow CME to satisfy all MOC biannual activities. Eliminate, or make optional, the medical knowledge, practice improvement and patient safety computer modules that have little practical value.
  • Charge a nominal fee (eg $100 per year) to track annual CME attendance as a substitute for MOC
  • Cut ABIM’s costs and correspondingly reduce initial certification and recertification fees by at least 20% over the next two years
  • Vastly simplify the ABIM website and MOC administrative tasks so physicians do not waste time on administrative activities
  • Members are divided on the issue of requiring recertification exams. Many believe the exam questions are not a reliable gauge of physician’s knowledge. Others favor requiring a recertification exam every 10 years, but the exam should be fair and easily passed by a physician in practice who keeps up with the literature and engages in adequate CME.

Founding members of the Physicians for Certification Change include:

Paul Teirstein, M.D.; Gregg Stone, M.D.; David R. Holmes, M.D.; Martin B. Leon, M.D.; Mladen I. Vidovich, M.D.; Kirk N. Garratt, M.D.; David Cox, M.D.; Andrew D. Michaels, M.D.; Peter B. Berger, M.D.; Chris White, M.D.; Bonnie H. Weiner, M.D.; Jeffrey W. Moses, M.D.; Michael Lim, M.D.; Augusto Pichard, M.D.; Dean Keriakes, M.D.; Samuel M. Butman, M.D.; Andrew Doorey, M.D.; Lloyd W. Klein, M.D.; Allen Jeremias, M.D.; Carl Tommaso, M.D.; Peter Pelikan, M.D.; Ramon Quesada, M.D.; Emmanouil Brilakis, M.D.; James Goldstein, M.D.; Bob Applegate, M.D.; Ted Feldman, M.D.; Morton Kern, M.D.; Charlie Chambers, M.D.; John Hodgson, M.D.; Aaron V. Kaplan, M.D.; Arnold Seto, M.D.; Craig Thompson, M.D.; David Rizik, M.D.; John Hirshfeld, M.D.; Karen Smith, M.D.; Peter Ver Lee, M.D.; Nauman Siddiqi, M.D.; Zoltan G. Turi, M.D.; Amir Lerman, M.D.; Roxana Mehran, M.D.; Igor Palacios, M.D.; Mitchell W. Krucoff, M.D.; Joseph D. Babb, M.D.; Westby G. Fisher, M.D.; E. Magnus Ohman, M.D.; Carlos E. Ruiz, M.D.; Steve Ramee, M.D.; Ajay Kirtane, M.D.; Kimberly A. Skelding, M.D.; Larry S. Dean, M.D.; Nicholas Hanna, M.D.; Aidan Raney, M.D.; J. Stephen Jenkins, M.D. & John K. Ross, M.D.

Website produced by:

Paul Teirstein, M.D.

Chief of Cardiology

Scripps Clinic

La Jolla, CA 92037

858 554 9905