This petition is for the American Board of Preventive Medicine executive and leadership. It relates to the maintenance of certification (MOC) process for the newly created specialty of clinical informatics (CI):

1. All CI diplomates are required to maintain board certification in their primary specification. Because of this, the design of the MOC for clinical informatics should be focused on the learning needs of CI practitioners, with the remainder of CME credits stemming from topics related to their primary board. Very few of the ABPM-recognized LLSA/CME activities are useful to CI diplomates' lifelong learning. The topics neither would improve the care they provide in their primary specialties or improve skills or understanding in clinical informatics. (If CI were a subboard of the American Board of Pathology, there would be no requirement for 100 credits of CME related to pathology topics.) We agree with a target of 250 credits of CME total over the 10 year recertification time. We disagree with a mandate that any of these credits be ABPM-approved LLSA credits.

2. Ideally, there should be a target set for a required number of CI-related CME credits per year. This target would likely be 10 a year or 100 over the course of the 10 years. This will essentially replace the 100 ABPM-approved LLSA credits. This should come out of the 250 credits and not be in addition to that total. However, there are no current enduring materials CME for clinical informatics. (The availability of CME via live meetings or conferences does not meet the needs of many CI diplomates and no other board requires accumulation of in-person CME.) For every calendar year these enduring materials remain unavailable, the requirement for CI-specific CME will be waived (not postponed or delayed). However, the diplomate will have to earn 10 other credits of CME in its place.

3. There should be no additional requirement for patient safety, patient feedback, or other QI modules. These are also already part of most diplomates' primary board certifications. These accessory modules beyond CME are currently under review by ABIM and have come under recent scrutiny as being excessive and unacceptable to board members.