Our patients and families expect us to stay up to date with our field of pediatrics. There are many ways to participate in lifelong learning, including reading Pediatrics. The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) is responsible for demonstrating to the public whether pediatricians are up to date and competent. Doing so can be difficult. Recently, the ABP created the Maintenance of Certification Assessment for Pediatrics (MOCA-Peds). This assessment consists of a series of 20 timed open-book questions given quarterly. Answers are revealed immediately, allowing the participant to learn when a question is missed. The topics addressed by missed questions can appear in a subsequent quarter, allowing the participant to demonstrate ongoing learning. Before it was officially launched as the recommended pathway for MOC Part 3, the ABP pilot tested this new approach with more than 5,000 pediatricians. At the end of the pilot year, about 80% of the cohort completed surveys regarding feasibility, acceptability, learning, and practice change. Leslie et al (10.1542/peds.2019-2303) and Turner et al (10.1542/peds.2019-2305) share the results of these pilots in two papers being early released in our journal this week.
The pilot testing of MOCA-Peds was sufficient, which lead to it being available to all diplomates. Nearly all pilot participants found MOCA-Peds to be acceptable and feasible, and 90% said they would prefer to use this model rather than taking a secured exam every 10 years. More than 97% of participating pediatricians reported they had learned and enhanced their knowledge as a result of the MOCA-Peds program, and of those, more than 60% said they had made a change in their practice as a result of what they had learned in the pilot questions. While there will not be a MOCA-Peds test question about what you read in these two articles, you may find the results of the pilot as described convincing enough to enroll in MOCA-Peds if you haven’t done so already. If you are enrolled, let us know if your experience with MOCA-Peds agrees with the pilot study results. You can post your comments on our website or on our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram sites.
