Every 10 years, internists and subspecialists certified in or after 1990 renew their certificates through the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification program. Maintenance of Certification promotes lifelong learning and the enhancement of the clinical judgment and skills essential for high quality patient care. In addition to passing the ABIM recertification examination, candidates must complete self-evaluation modules in both Medical Knowledge and Practice Performance.
One option for physicians can use to complete the Self Evaluation of Practice Performance is to collect their own primary data through Practice Improvement Modules (PIMs). The ABIM provides explicit instructions including medical record abstraction forms and patient surveys, which the physician completes, and submits to the ABIM along with a structured quality improvement plan and assessment.
An alternate approach for physicians seeking ABIM recertification Practice Performance credit is to participate in ABIM's Approved Continuous Quality Improvement (ACQI) program at Yale New Haven Hospital. The ACQI program was developed in 2006 as a pilot program to allow physicians involved in externally-developed quality improvement efforts to receive credit toward maintaining their ABIM certification.
Yale New Haven Hospital is a currently approved program in the ACQI pathway. To receive credit from the ABIM, physicians must attest to participation in existing YNHH performance improvement initiative, and document an active contribution to the quality improvement process. Prior to starting any performance improvement activity for the purpose of receiving ABIM credit, please contact the YNHH ABIM liaison for inpatient (Grace Jenq, MD) or outpatient (Cary Gross, MD) hospital-based practice improvement.
Further forms and instructions from ABIM include an instruction sheet and an attestation form.
