title: Quality assurance and continuing medical education in dermatopathology - the ASDP way.
abstract: Professional motivation led the American Society of Dermatopathology to approve the establishment of a program for quality assurance, the first of its kind in dermatopathology. Recent announcements from the American Board of Medical Specialties indicating that its member boards have a responsibility to set standards for, and to assess, the continuing competence of their diplomates have resulted in specialty board recertification programs evolving into programs of maintenance of certification. With this in mind, we initiate a CME section, administered online, in this issue of the journal based on the needs assessment of the ASDP membership survey conducted earlier. In addition to each participant receiving a printable CME certificate upon completion of the quiz, evaluation surveys are set up to enable us to get feedback essential for meeting the accreditation council for continuing medical education requirements and perhaps even more importantly to seek possible 'weaknesses' in an endeavor to improve the program. As always, your participation and constructive criticisms help us as a society to serve your needs better.
authors.affiliation: Dermatopathology Section, Department of Dermatology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA. mmahalin@bu.edu
authors.forename: Meera
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahalingam
mesh_terms: D002568:Certification / Q000592:standards; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003880:Dermatology / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine; D010336:Pathology / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013038:Specialization; D013044:Specialty Boards; D014481:United States