J Am Board Fam Med
-
COVID-19 pandemic-related health care disruptions necessitated rapid adaptation among family physicians to safely meet patient needs while protecting themselves and their staff. On April 1, 2020, the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) introduced a COVID Performance Improvement (PI) activity for physicians to report on and receive Family Medicine certification credit for practice adjustments they made during the early stages of the pandemic. We aimed to understand the types of interventions implemented, and lessons physicians learned from the efforts. ⋯ A PI activity template designed for continuous board certification allowed family physicians to report on how they successfully implemented short term practice changes during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reflections from this subset of physicians regarding lessons learned may prove useful in informing future COVID-19 related practice changes.
-
Improving design, selection and implementation of appropriate clinical quality measures can reduce harms and costs of health care and improve the quality and experience of care delivery. These measures have not been evaluated for appropriateness for use in performance measurement in a systematic, reproducible, and widely accepted manner. ⋯ Using this consensus-driven, 10-criteria methodology we were able to evaluate appropriateness of clinical quality measures. This methodology may improve measure design and inform selection of the most appropriate measures for use in quality measurement, financial incentives, and reporting.
-
The rate of overdose deaths has increased dramatically over the past 2 decades. Recently, efforts have been made to expand access to medications for opioid use disorder, such as buprenorphine, by removing X-waiver training requirements. ⋯ We argue that while buprenorphine diversion is not to be condoned, the benefits of such actions greatly outweigh the harms. Thus, criminalization of diverted buprenorphine represents a dangerous and wasteful response that threatens the progress made through expanded access to this lifesaving medication.
-
As part of their continuing efforts to create higher parity levels in the Family Medicine Certification Examination, the American Board of Family Medicine has established procedures to explore bias in certification examinations by establishing a differential item functioning (DIF) analysis process and panel review. The review panel consists of a diverse group of family physicians and a linguist who is charged with determining whether items from the examination contain bias unrelated to the practice of medicine. It is the objective of this commentary to explain the panel process itself and to promote the inclusion of a linguist in similar panels. I argue that the inclusion of a linguist on a DIF panel can aid in determining where language itself is the source of bias.
-
Despite interacting with a number of other people, doctors are at risk of social isolation. The author shares from his experiences how the use of professional titles may unintentionally hinder the development of meaningful relationships at and away from work. This may increase the risk for physicians to experience isolation, loneliness and burnout.