The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) maintenance of certification (MOC) program involves ongoing activities covering four key components: Professional Standing; Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment; Cognitive Expertise (passing an assessment); and Improving Professional Practice / Quality Improvement (QI).

The ABP MOC model strives to integrate activities into a pediatrician’s practice to encourage lifelong learning and self-assessment while improving the effectiveness, safety, and quality of patient care.

Diplomates must meet the following requirements for ABP maintenance of certification:

MOC Part 1: Professional Standing

For MOC Part 1, Physicians must maintain at least one valid, unrestricted medical license, and no restricted licenses.

MOC Part 2: Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment

MOC Part 2, Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment, evaluates and enhances the knowledge pediatricians need to remain up to date in practice. You can meet your Part 2 requirement through a variety of activities. Some examples from ABP include General Pediatric Knowledge, Decision Skills, and Subspecialty Self-Assessments, or the ABP Question of the Week activity.

NEJM Knowledge+ Pediatrics Board Review also fulfills Part 2 of the ABP MOC program: Pediatricians can earn up to 153 ABP MOC points in the Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment segments.

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Note: Physicians must earn 50 points each for Parts 2 and 4 of the MOC process for a total of 100 points every five years. Upon completion of the Activities/Points cycle, candidates re-enroll and pay a fee to initiate the next MOC activity/points cycle.

MOC Part 3: Cognitive Expertise

To demonstrate cognitive expertise, physicians will need to pass an ABP MOC Assessment every five years. Physicians have two options for their Part 3 requirement:

The ABP MOC Exam

–or–

MOCA-Peds

ABP MOC Exam

Physicians who choose the one-and-done approach to their assessment requirement rather than the ongoing nature of MOCA-Peds (see below), or those who do not pass MOCA-peds, can still take the ABP MOC exam to meet their assessment requirement. The proctored exam is offered at secure testing facilities and consists of single-best-answer, multiple-choice questions that are based on the ABIM MOC Content Outlines/Exam Blueprints.

The exam is now required every five years instead of ten. ABP cites the exponential nature of increasing medical knowledge as the rationale for aligning the exam with the rest of the five-year ABP MOC cycle.

MOCA-Peds

Physicians who prefer the commitment to continual learning inherent in longitudinal assessment may choose MOCA-Peds for their Part 3 assessment requirement. 

MOCA-Peds is ABP’s web-based pediatrics assessment that consists of 20 multiple-choice questions delivered to participants every quarter over a five-year cycle. Questions can be answered at any time, on any device throughout the quarter. Some questions will be based on recent articles that participants can read prior to answering the questions. ABP will exclude the four lowest-scored quarters when calculating a final score for MOCA-Peds at the end of the cycle.

Whether you are taking the traditional MOC exam or participating in MOCA-Peds, NEJM Knowledge+ Pediatrics Board Review can help you prepare, earn ABP points and CME credits, and improve your practice to optimize patient care. Learn more.

MOC Part 4: Improving Professional Practice / Quality Improvement (QI)

The other half of the “Activities/Points Cycle” is Part 4, Improving Professional Practice. In this segment, pediatricians participate in collaborative or individual QI projects, including web-based QI activities. Because QI activities focus on assessing and improving the quality of patient care, they can often be performed concurrently with the activities that make up a physician’s daily practice of pediatric medicine.

Rollover Points

On February 24, 2022, ABP announced that it would begin allowing physicians to roll over up to 25 Part 4 points to the next MOC cycle if they earn points in excess of the 50-point requirement.

What are the ABP MOC Requirements?

The table below provides a summary of the ABP MOC requirements that are detailed above. To remain board-certified in pediatric medicine diplomates must meet these requirements every five years:

ABP MOC RequirementDescription
Part 1Maintain a valid, unrestricted license in the United States or Canada
Part 2Complete self-assessment activities to earn at least 50 points
Part 3Pass an assessment to demonstrate Cognitive Expertise:

Pass the ABP Recertification Exam
—or—
Participate in and pass MOCA-Peds

Part 4Complete 2 activities worth 25 points each

Some ABMS Boards offer reciprocal MOC credit for pediatric medicine. Diplomates who have completed training in an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) residency or fellowship may receive 10 MOC points in Part 2 and 10 MOC points in Part 4 for every 12 months of training completed during their current MOC cycle.

How NEJM Knowledge+ Pediatrics Board Review Helps

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) released a report from their Vision Initiative in 2019 that includes research demonstrating that physicians often have insufficient capacity to self-assess or identify their own knowledge gaps. NEJM Knowledge+ Pediatrics Board Review can help you overcome this challenge in two ways:

First, it is adaptive, which means questions are delivered based on your performance. In other words, the algorithm adapts the content based on what you know and don’t know, automatically targeting your knowledge gaps and saving you valuable time.

Second, NEJM Knowledge+ asks you about your confidence level as you answer questions and then generates Confidence vs. Performance reports that allow you to compare your actual performance with how you anticipated you would perform. This knowledge gap analysis not only helps you prepare for your assessment efficiently and effectively, but it also helps you develop self-awareness about your medical knowledge that improves your efficiency and efficacy in diagnosing and treating patients to optimize your practice.

Learn more about NEJM Knowledge+ Pediatrics Board Review and how it helps you improve your practice, prepare for your ABP assessment, and meet your other ABP MOC requirements.