Summary: Doctors go through a re-certification process. But is the "industry" of medicine asking too much of them?The following is a transcript of an interview between host Christopher Springmann and guest, Dr. Danielle Ofri... Christopher Springmann: Dr. Ofri, it’s a joy to have you on Body Language again. Thank you. Dr. Danielle Ofri: It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you. CS: Oh, you're getting the program down. You are the author of the wonderful book What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine. You're going through an emotional time these days, as you're preparing for your once a decade review of your Boards. What am I talking about, and what’s going on with you? DO: Well, you're talking about the process that’s called recertification. So back in the day you did your medical school. You did residency. You took a licensing exam that every medical student took. And then, once you completed your residency training in your field, be it surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics, you would take a Board Exam to be board certified in that field. And this exam was administered by the specialty organization, for me, the American Board of Internal Medicine, or for someone else, the American Board of Surgery. You took it; you're board certified and that’s it. You put down your number two pencils and never look at a fill in the blank test again, but you're right. CS: Well let’s back up just a little bit. Why is it important to be board certified? What does that mean to your career and your employability? DO: Well it should acknowledge that you have a high level knowledge of your specialty. That if you are a surgeon, you have taken a very rigorous test in surgery, and the same for nephrology, infectious disease. So many institutions won’t hire you if you're not board certified. CS: Ah ha. So there’s money involved there. DO: Yeah. And many patients rightly would like to know that their internist has a good working knowledge of internal medicine. CS: Well all that sounds very reasonable. So what’s the problem, Doctor? Why are you having difficulty preparing for this test, which seems to me as a civilian, as a patient, a pretty mandatory thing? DO: Well and so initially, as I was saying, you took the test once, you were board certified for life. But obviously medicine changes. CS: Ah ha. DO: I think we all recognize that. So in 1990, they changed the requirement. You had to re-take the test every 10 years. Now of course if you were lucky enough to certify before then you got grandfathered in. So older physicians did not have to take it. They could if they wanted and some did. But everyone else every 10 years had to retake the test. CS: Now this also is a great big business isn’t it? It’s become an industry that drives a huge financial gain for the folks who do the testing and the certification. DO: Well that’s the flip side. If you just take the test per se, I think most of us feel it’s completely reasonable to have some reevaluation periodically, because medicine does change. And the things I learned as a medical student, many of them are different or completely opposite. So most of us agree that a one-time acknowledgement doesn’t guarantee that you keep up to date for life. The question as you say is in the details. So a few things have come up. One is that it’s a very expensive process, thousands and thousands of dollars and much time to prepare. And then for me, I’m spending a year preparing for the test, so enormous numbers of hours. Many people will take days off from work and take a course . . . CS: Well as you said, Doctor, in the New York Times article, some parts of this recertification process are useful. The practice… DO: Yeah. I think the knowledge base is definitely helpful. And there’s also a second part to the—there’s been a bit of mission creep in recertification. So in addition to the every 10-year test, you now have to do what’s called Maintenance of Certification al
