The DARTNet Institute Joins ABMS Multi-Specialty Portfolio Program

Program Offers Participating Physicians an Opportunity to Maintain Board Certification and Improve Patient Health and Safety

CHICAGO, Dec. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) announced that the DARTNet Institute has joined ABMS' Multi-Specialty Portfolio Program™ (Portfolio Program). Physicians who are Board Certified by one of the 20 of 24 ABMS Member Boards participating in the Portfolio Program can now earn Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Improvement in Medical Practice (Part IV) credit for their involvement in selected DARTNet Institute's Quality Improvement (QI) activities.

The DARTNet Institute is a growing collaboration of Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRNs), academic health centers, clinicians, and patients that provide access to reliable, secure databases and foster research to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes in clinical practice. The networks blend QI, effectiveness, and translational research from a data-driven perspective. The DARTNet Institute manages a registry database of more than 60,000 physicians and mid-level providers representing more than 20 million patients across the United States.

Through the Portfolio Program, the DARTNet Institute plans to have a variety of pre-approved measures to offer to participating providers, which will focus on Asthma Management, Chronic Kidney Disease Management and Screening, Adult and Pediatric Immunizations, and Behavioral Health Management and Screening. Sites will be able to add new metrics that match their local QI activities, providing outcomes that can be measured using EHR data. This will allow clinical organizations to match their high priority QI efforts with the need for their physicians to receive Maintenance of Certification Improvement in Medical Practice credit.

Dr. Wilson Pace, DARTNet Chief Medical Officer, noted, "The DARTNet Portfolio activities allow our partners to tailor their MOC activities to meet local needs. For instance, Accountable Care Organizations can now use their work to meet CMS quality metrics to obtain MOC IV credit with the same activities. This ability to focus on local needs improves the utility of the work to the physicians involved. Hopefully, this alignment will result in more lasting improvement outcomes from MOC IV activities."

The DARTNet Institute will use a research model called TRANSLATE, which consists of the following:

• Target measures – selecting QI effort measure
• Registries – determining where and how measure will be tracked
• Administrative buy-in – determining value to administration/organization
• Network Information Systems (IS) – setting up reminders or workflow in IS
• Site coordinator – identifying coordinator and assigned responsibilities
• Local clinician champion – identifying champion and assigned responsibilities
• Audit and feedback – regularly reviewing performance/progress
• Team approach – identification of QI team and assigned responsibilities
• Education – participation in learning opportunities

This model requires that the QI effort chosen must be continuously measured over time and that a documentation process is built into an information technology system, like an electronic health record. An online reporting platform will be available for participating QI teams to view their QI efforts and measure improvements.

Additionally, the model encourages QI teams to work together toward improvement. For a physician to receive MOC credit through the DARTNet Institute, the physician must be able to demonstrate that he or she is meaningfully involved in the QI project at the practice level. This includes being a member of, or supporting, a QI team, reviewing current performance, helping to redesign practice activities, and reviewing and responding to follow-up reports.

"The DARTNet Institute's participation in the Portfolio Program is an excellent example of how Board Certified physicians can obtain Continuing Certification credit for engaging in QI efforts important to their patients and their community," stated ABMS President and Chief Executive Officer Richard E. Hawkins, MD. "The Portfolio Program continues to illustrate how the Boards Community, in partnerships with a wide range of health care organizations, can impact practice improvement and patient care." 

"We are very pleased to welcome the DARTNet Institute as an ABMS Portfolio Program sponsor. DARTNet is a unique organization and the first of its kind to serve as a Portfolio Program sponsor," stated David W. Price, MD, FAAFP, FACEHP, Executive Director of the Portfolio Program. "Our relationship enables physicians from different practices across the country to receive Continuing Certification credit for engaging in DARTNet's improvement and translational research activities."

To date, the ABMS Portfolio Program has helped engage physicians in QI and practice improvement initiatives at hospitals and health systems across the country, with many showing improvement in care outcomes. Since its inception, more than 2,600 improvement efforts have been completed by Portfolio Program participants.

About ABMS
Established in 1933, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is the leading not-for-profit organization overseeing physician certification in the United States. ABMS establishes the standards its 24 Member Boards use to develop and implement educational and professional evaluation, assessment, and certification of physician specialists, helping to improve the quality of care to the patients, families and communities we serve. More than 880,000 physicians are certified in one or more of the approved 40 specialties and 85 subspecialties offered by the ABMS Member Boards.  For more information about ABMS, visit abms.org or call (312) 436-2600.

About the DARTNet Institute
The DARTNet Institute is a robust research support organization that uses modern technology to securely aggregate and report data from electronic health records, claims and patient reported outcomes. The organization supports multiple databases, including a quality improvement registry, patient safety registry and study specific registries that link data from more than 1,000 clinical organizations and include over 20 million patient lives.

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SOURCE American Board of Medical Specialties