Mayo Clinic: Physician Attitudes About Maintenance of Certification – A Cross-Specialty National Survey

David A. Cook, MD, MHPE, Morris J. Blachman, PhD, Colin P. West, MD, PhD, Christopher M. Wittich, MD, PharmD

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Dr Teirstein Comments

Mayo Clinic Proceedings: A survey of physician’s attitudes on MOC in 2016. Only 15% agree with the statement “MOC is worth the time and effort.” In the online addendum you will find data indicating if physicians who only “slightly agree” with the above statement are removed, this number drops to 4%. This is just a survey, but it is worth including because it shows the near universal physician opinion that MOC is not helpful.

Dr Ajay Kirtane Comments

This reports the results of an internet and paper survey on MOC across specialties. The response rate of 988/4583 is fair, but expected for a survey of this kind. Remarkably, only 24% of physicians agreed that MOC activities were relevant to their patients, and 15% felt they were worth the time and effort. A total of 27% felt that they had adequate support in completing MOC activities and 12% felt that these activities were well-integrated with clinical practice. A total of 81% felt that MOC was a burden to them, and 9.1% felt that patients cared about MOC status. In secondary questions, the pessimistic outlook on MOC (including PIM persisted) across this sample, with 22% feeling that MOC self-assessment activities contributed to professional development. In further analyses, there were no associations between these perceptions and other demographic characteristics of the surveyed physicians. Overall these survey results are remarkable in the pessimism expressed for the MOC process.