Information on Maintenance of Certification with ABAM:
Maintenance of Certification for Addiction Medicine Physicians (MC-ADM) is the process that provides the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM) with the means to continually assess Diplomates. The American Board of Addiction Medicine, sensing growing and repeated threats from outside the medical field, determined that Diplomates should be required to meet the highest standards of accountability. In response the ABAM designed a process called Maintenance of Certification. This structure consists of four components, each designed to assess important physician characteristics: professionalism (Part I), self-assessment and lifelong learning (Part II), cognitive expertise (Part III), and performance in practice (Part IV). Although these elements are similar to and consistent with ABAM’s long-standing recertification program, MC-ADM stresses the importance of ongoing participation in activities that evaluate each of these components between recertification examinations. MC-ADM is a requirement that the ABAM believes encourages clinical excellence and benefits both physicians and their patients.
The ABAM roll-out of MC-ADM was designed to gradually transition all Diplomates into the program by 2010, enrolling all physicians who certify or recertify as they successfully pass the examination. The first group of ABAM Certified Physicians will enter MC-ADM in 2011 and will be comprised of those physicians who certified or recertified in 2010 or thereafter.