All of the 24 boards that are members of the American Board of Medical Specialties have implemented their maintenance of certification programs in 2008, announced Kevin B. Weiss, MD, MPH, president and CEO, ABMS, during a hot-topics session at the Alliance for CME annual conference held in January in San Francisco.

Under maintenance of certification programs, physicians must demonstrate a commitment to lifelong learning and to practice improvement in order to maintain their specialty board certifications.

Many of the boards have incorporated CME as a means for physicians to meet their MOC requirements, Weiss said in a follow-up interview. The ABMS Committee on Oversight and Monitoring of Maintenance of Certification is developing standards that would make certain types of CME a requirement for MOC activities. The committee is also discussing whether to develop an ABMS MOC CME credit framework that would establish standards for the CME activities acceptable for MOC CME credit.

Watch for an in-depth interview with Weiss about these developments in the June issue of Medical Meetings magazine.