The American Board of Anesthesiology
Strategy 1: Reimagine the future of assessments
Strategic Need
The ABA takes pride in its reputation as an innovative leader in assessment and certication. As technological advances deliver improvements in health care and medicine, we must continue to embrace new assessment tools.
The acceleration of technological change – including but not limited to artificial intelligence (AI) – challenges us to develop greater expertise in new approaches to assessment. We need to evolve with emerging technologies and a new generation of anesthesiologists. As we anticipate a future of competency-based assessment tools that are highly personalized, our commitments to patient safety and clinical excellence remain unshakeable.
Initiatives
- Expand beyond multiple-choice questions
- Incorporate adaptive learning into continuing certification for more personalized assessment
- Provide aggregate board-certified anesthesiologist performance data to medical educators to support CME development
- Display additional MOCA Minute performance information including percentile data
Strategy 2: Develop a Seamless Continuing Certification System
Strategic Need
We endeavor to be a trusted partner in lifelong learning for our board-certified anesthesiologists through continuing certification. We ensure that continuing certification is accessible and convenient, understanding that this enables more optimal delivery of patient care.
Initiatives
- Develop a personalized CME recommender model based on continuing certification performance
- Post annually a summary of diplomates’ feedback on MOCA Minute questions and a description of how the ABA has used this feedback
Strategy 3: Evolve Certification Content to Emphasize a Holistic Skill Set
Strategic Need
Assessment of a fundamental clinical knowledge base will remain a foundational task for the ABA. At the same time, we recognize that hospitals and health systems have an increasing expectation that physicians possess a holistic set of skills. Accordingly, we need to recognize the importance of skills such as leadership, management, and professionalism and innovate techniques to assess them in our certification processes.
Initiatives
- Develop more robust OSCEs that assess team-based skills
- Generate case-based MOCA questions related to leadership, management and professionalism
- Add leadership, management, professionalism and other holistic skills to ABA content outlines
Strategy 4: Take the Lead in Envisioning the Future of the Specialty
Strategic Need
As the specialty evolves, we must adapt. As we anticipate and address patient and institutional needs, including workforce supply, we seek to fill clinical and leadership gaps and create new opportunities for our board-certified anesthesiologists.
Initiatives
- Explore development of innovative training programs to support increased subspecialty knowledge acquisition in residency
- Expand the Alternate Entry Pathway program with an Exceptional Clinician Pathway
- Increase the emphasis on perioperative medicine in initial and continuing certification
Strategy 5: Engage Trainees and Programs Early
Strategic Need
Our goal is to develop and maintain career-long partnerships with anesthesiologists as they meet the high bar of board certification and seamlessly transition into continuing certification. We believe this relationship needs to start during residency training. We want to understand from residents and their programs how learning and training are evolving and the challenges they face.
Initiatives
- Develop a resident engagement plan
- Develop a new formative assessment tool to give feedback to programs and residents
- Expand formative assessment to include communication and professionalism
Strategy 6: Invest in Research to Drive Innovation
Strategic Need
We are committed to administering assessments that are consistent, reliable and valid. This requires evidence, informed by research, to drive innovation, ensure we use our resources wisely and continue advancing the highest standards of the specialty.
Initiatives
- Conduct comparative research on existing and alternate continuing certification models to inform future program evolution
- Engage with practicing anesthesiologists to better understand which clinical and holistic skills add value to practice
- Amplify ABA research results to raise stakeholder awareness and elevate ABA thought leadership
Strategy 7: Invest in Volunteer Development
Strategic Need
The ABA operates at highest effectiveness with a strong cadre of dedicated volunteers. With ever-increasing demands on anesthesiologists’ time, we must aim to enhance the value that volunteers gain from their ABA experience.
Initiatives
- Strengthen volunteer networking through the development of an accessible volunteer database
- Develop a volunteer education program to assist with leadership and career development
- Connect current and retired examiners for engagement opportunities