Balmer Appointed to the Vision Initiative Commission

Congratulations to Jann Balmer, PhD, RN, Director of Continuing Medical Education, on being appointed to the Vision Initiative Commission by the Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future Initiative. The commission members will be responsible for assessing the status of continuing board certification and making recommendations to help enable the current process to become a system that demonstrates the profession’s commitment to professional self-regulation, offers a consistent and clear understanding of what continuing certification means, and establishes a meaningful, relevant and valuable program that meets the highest standard of quality patient care.

A total of 176 nominations were submitted from 42 states, representing a diverse group of stakeholder communities, including physicians from a wide variety of specialties and practice settings. Nominations for individuals were received from national specialty and state medical societies, hospitals and health systems, healthcare organizations, and the general public. Dr. Balmer is one of 24 other distinguished members to join the commission.

“The reason that this appointment to the Vision Commission is important,” says Balmer, “is that this body is tasked with creating a new Ongoing Board Certification process for American Board of Medical Specialties [ABMS] board-certified physicians. There are currently 24 ABMS certifying boards for physicians. The ABMS Maintenance of Certification processes have been complicated and frustrating for board-certified physicians. Since over 95 percent of our physicians at UVA are ABMS board certified, the opportunity to provide input into the design of a new, ongoing board-certification process is very important to UVA.”

The Commission will begin by conducting a comprehensive assessment of the current continuing board certification system. Feedback will be obtained from various stakeholders through multiple methods including a survey that is now open for input. The Commission will hold hearings and seek feedback on concepts and ideas during the process and will periodically release public reports about their findings. The Commission’s final recommendations will be submitted to the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and its Member Boards on February 1, 2019.