A Performance Improvement (PI) Locator tool is now available within the diplomate’s physician portfolio on the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) website. The locator will allow diplomates to simply report how and where they provide care. The ABFM will be collecting information such as clinical status, practice information, areas of interest, recognitions and awards, and activity types from the diplomate. From there the ABFM will highlight the relevant activities that match the physician’s preferences. “Status at a Glance” is provided to help quickly identify outstanding requirements. Diplomates will still be able to find a full list of approved PI activities located within their physician portfolio.
The goal of the PI requirement for certification is to demonstrate that board-certified family physicians can reflectively look at their practice, identify an opportunity for improvement, put an intervention in place, and re-measure to see if that change resulted in an improvement.
Today, it is common for family physicians to be engaged in PI in practice, and, when that is the case, the goal of the PI requirement is already being met. The ABFM appreciates that more options were needed for physicians whose practice scope and environment is different (hospital-based, urgent or emergent care settings, locum tenens, hospice/palliative care, sports medicine, etc.). As a result, changes have been made over the last five years to support greater choice and relevance while eliminating the need for unnecessary redundancy of work.