Take a Minute - October 24, 2007

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American Board of Medical Genetics

Business & Program Directors Meeting

October 24, 2007

President's Report – Stuart Schwartz welcomed everyone to the meeting. He introduced the ABMG Board of Directors and asked those present to stand: Jean Amos, Art Aylsworth, Tina Cowan, Christopher Cunniff, Bill Gahl, Jacquie Hecht, Jeff Innis, Kristin Monahan, Cindy Moore, Cindy Powell, Charles Schwartz, Maren Scheuner, and Greta Seashore. He also thanked Sharon Robinson, Administrator, and Karla Matteson, Executive Director, for their hard work and dedication to the organization.

He reminded everyone that the certification examinations are being offered every two years instead of every three. He announced that the ABGC no longer resides in the ABMG Administrative Office in Bethesda and that they no longer share office staff. Robinson and her staff are now employed full time by the ABMG.

The ABMG new directors are Athena Cherry and Nancy Leslie.
Our new officers are Cindy Moore, President, Charles Schwartz, Vice President/President Elect; Cindy Powell, Treasurer; and Tina Cowan will continue as Secretary for another year.

Bill Gahl and Stuart Schwartz will end their tenure on the Board of Directors; both were thanked and given a small token of the Board’s appreciation.

Secretary's Report – Tina Cowan asked for a motion to approve the 2006 Combined Business and Program Director’s meeting. These minutes were posted on the website for review. Maureen Bocian made a motion to approve the minutes as presented; this was seconded and approved unanimously. [In the future, the Board of Directors will review and approve the minutes. They will continue to be posted on the website for review.]

Treasurer's Report – Charles Schwartz announced that as of September 30, 2007, we’ve received $631,899, majority of these funds were for the certification examination and EMOC. Expenses as of 9/30/07 totaled $643,728; major expenses included the certification examination and the consulting fees for EMOC portal/computer access. As of 9/30/2007, there was an expected deficit of $11,000.

Committee Reports
Accreditation Committee – There will be a change in the deadline for reaccreditation applications and annual reports. An email will be sent to program directors with these new dates. As soon as the kinks have been worked out in the new software, program directors will be able to submit annual reports and accreditation/reaccreditation documents online. It is our hope that the new portal will be make submissions more efficient and easier. This site will not be shared with the ACGME/RRC due to confidentiality issues.

Maintenance of Certification – Diplomates with time-limited certificates that end in 2007 must register online for EMOC through the new Portal. Part I includes registering online and the submission of an attestation letter for PhDs and uploading licensure documentation for MDs. We anticipate that Part II’s will be available after the first of the year; Part III’s will be available in February and Part IV’s are not required till 2010. Annual fees must be paid each year. Diplomates with lifetime certificates are encouraged to participate in MOC will enter a new 10 year cycle. Plan to attend the open forum later today, 6:30 pm, to further discuss requirement of EMOC requirements and view the new portal.

Credentials Committee – Margretta Seashore
The 2009 Bulletin of Information will be posted on the website very soon. The Committee received a question about Osteopathic training, are they eligible to enter an ACMGE-accredited clinical genetics residency? The Credentials Committee agreed that osteopathic training did not meeting the requirements and that all applicants must complete an ACGME-clinical residency prior to entering a clinical genetics residency. Special situations will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis upon submission to the Credentials Committee. The Committee reviewed a request regarding distance learning for a doctoral degree. After thorough review, it was agreed to accept the degree because it was offered from a university that is accredited by the accrediting commission of higher education.

Other Business
Results of the 2007 certification examination will be mailed to examinees November 5, 2007. Overall, the August examination went smoothly. We will continue to offer computer-based exams. MOC examinations will be offered in a similar manner, but slightly different timeframe.

Due to the declining numbers of applicants, this was the last offering of the PhD Medical Genetics examination.
 

1 Special Retake Examination for candidates who experienced test administration problems in 2002.
2 PhD was not administered in 2003

Names of the new diplomates will appear in Genetics in Medicine (ACMG journal), as well at the American Society of Human Genetics journals.

New Business
2009 Examination – The logbook requirements for the 2009 examination have been updated. Anything that was a “recommendation” in 2007 could become a requirement in 2009. New requirements have been forwarded to the program directors and are also available on the ABMG website.

Medical Biochemical Genetics Subspecialty (new name) – This new subspecialty will be available to diplomates certified in clinical genetics. This will be a one year residency program accredited by the ACGME. Diplomates certified by other ABMS boards will be required to complete a 2 year residency program. ACGME approved the accreditation pathway; ABMS has approved certification of this subspecialty. ACMG has submitted a letter of approval.

We are in the process of establishing logbook requirements and hope to have them completed by February 2008. RRC will establish a sub-RRC to establish intuitional requirements for accreditation. Bruce Korf indicated John Belmont has finalized the accreditation requirements and they will be announced very soon. We anticipate the first examination to be available with the ABMG primary examinations in 2009. Grandfathering for this subspecialty will include a minimum of 25% time in the treatment and management of metabolic disorders and will be available for 3 cycles through 2013 (2009, 2011 and 2013). Those of you interested in grandfathering, logbook requirements will be available after the first of the year; check the website for details. You may wish to begin collecting cases prospective and retrospective cases now.

Primary certification for Clinical Biochemical Genetics will remain in effect. The subspecialty, Medical Biochemical Genetics, will be time-limited and will require participation in MOC.
Those wanting to be a Lab director should do the 2 year primary certification. The subspecialty does not apply to laboratory directors. Those doing clinical genetics may want to have a subspecialty in Medical Biochemical Genetics. A diplomate with the subspecialty in Medical Biochemical Genetics cannot sign off on laboratory reports. SIMD voted 56/8 in favor of the new subspecialty.

This certification allows for patient care, not running a laboratory, as such, logbook cases must be medical, not laboratory cases.

Application deadline for the subspecialty examination will be the same as for all specialties, November 2008.

Special request from Shawn McCandless regarding participation in the Residency Match Program. His comments were directed to ACGME residency programs with combined pediatrics/genetics or internal medicine/genetics, who are offered positions to residents outside of the match. If you are part in the national residency match program, you are eligible to take 4th year students, but you must participate in the match. You cannot offer a position outside of the match program.

Clinical genetics residencies are not part of the match. Programs can accept people into the combined program if the candidate is a graduate of a national medical school or if the candidate is a foreign medical graduate. No one knew why clinical genetics residencies are not part of the match. Bruce Korf offered to look into the issue with the ACGME.

Special request from Derek Wong, genetics representative for COPS (Council of Pediatric Subspecialists, www.pedsubs.org ). COPS is uniting official pediatric subspecialists with several other specialties such as pediatric dermatology, Allergy/Immunology, etc. to help with issues such as residency matches, attracting residents to genetics, and reimbursement for subspecialty providers. Wong was unable to attend the meeting, no further information on this issue.

Program directors were reminded that there have been changes to 2009 logbook requirements, in most cases recommendations became a requirement, but there are no new requirements. Recommendations should be included in the program. Recommendations, at some point, will become a requirement.

There being no further business, there was a motion to adjourned, it was seconded, and unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 12:40 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Sharon Robinson, MS
ABMG Administrator