Association between maintenance of certification examination scores and quality of care for medicare beneficiaries.
BACKGROUND
The relationship between physicians' cognitive skill and the delivery of evidence-based processes of care is not well characterized.Therefore, we set out to determine associations between general internists' performance on the American Board of Internal Medicine maintenance of certification examination and the receipt of important processes of care by Medicare patients.


METHODS
Physicians were grouped into quartiles based on their performance on the American Board of Internal Medicine examination. Hierarchical generalized linear models examined associations between examination scores and the receipt of processes of care by Medicare patients. The main outcome measures were the associations between diabetes care, using a composite measure of hemoglobin A(1c), and lipid testing and retinal screening, mammography, and lipid testing in patients with cardiovascular disease and the physician's performance on the American Board of Internal Medicine examination, adjusted for the number of Medicare patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease in a physician's practice panel; frequency of visits; patient comorbidity, age, and ethnicity; and physician training history and type of practice.


RESULTS
Physicians scoring in the top quartile were more likely to perform processes of care for diabetes (composite measure odds ratio [OR], 1.17; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-1.27) and mammography screening (OR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.08-1.21) than physicians in the lowest physician quartile, even after adjustment for multiple factors. There was no significant difference among the groups in lipid testing of patients with cardiovascular disease (OR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.91-1.10).


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that physician cognitive skills, as measured by a maintenance of certification examination, are associated with higher rates of processes of care for Medicare patients.
Holmboe
Eric S
ES
American Board of Internal Medicine, 510 Walnut St, Ste 1700, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA. eholmboe@abim.org
Wang
Yun
Y
Meehan
Thomas P
TP
Tate
Janet P
JP
Ho
Shih-Yieh
SY
Starkey
Katie S
KS
Lipner
Rebecca S
RS
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002568:Certification; D002983:Clinical Competence; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D011336:Probability; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012042:Registries; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014481:United States