Maintenance of Certification—If seeing patients while balancing life’s other commitments keeps you as busy as it does me, we might share the opinion that it can seem like there is hardly time to fit the new ABIM Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements into your already full schedule. The ACR is actively seeking ways to incorporate MOC into activities we are already doing—including attending sessions at the Annual Meeting.
This year, the Annual Meeting will offer three sessions (at no additional cost to attendees, I might add) designed to refresh their knowledge in key areas of the MOC exam blueprint as they earn MOC points. Topics will include rheumatoid arthritis (led by Jonathan Kay, MD, UMass Memorial Medical Center, Boston, Mass.), vasculitis (led by Carol Langford, MD, MHS, Cleveland [Ohio] Clinic), and other rheumatic and connective tissue diseases (led by Nancy Olsen, MD, University of California at Davis).
Learning More about the Social World of Medicine—Patients are blogging and sharing their experiences with each other, physicians are participating in Twitter chats to help shine light on specific medical topics, and crowdsourcing sites continue to offer space for feedback on our patients’ experiences within our practices. Like it or not, use it or not, social media is now a major player in healthcare.
At this year’s meeting, two sessions on social media will be available: Twitter Basics and Blogging for Beginners. These sessions will help those of us who are just getting our feet wet realize the value of social media in enhancing lifelong learning in medicine, as well as extending our professional networks.
I don’t know if I’ll ever have the Twitter following of Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga or Pope Francis (nor do I think I’d want to), but I do want to know where my patients are gathering, talking and obtaining healthcare information.
I don’t know if I’ll ever have the Twitter following of Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga or Pope Francis (nor do I think I’d want to), but I do want to know where my patients are gathering, talking & obtaining healthcare information.
Connect
Perhaps a close second to the education that will be offered is the opportunity to reconnect with friends and make new connections. With so many colleagues from around the world in one place, I like to fill my spare time with those precious face-to-face meetings that aren’t always so easy to plan throughout the year.
