VCU news

By Anne Dreyfuss and Rich Waters

Furthering VCU Health’s mission toward becoming America’s safest health system, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine recently joined the American Board of Medical Specialties Multi-Specialty Portfolio Program. Physicians affiliated with VCU School of Medicine and VCU Health, and who are board certified by one of the 21 of 24 ABMS member boards participating in the portfolio program, may now receive maintenance of certification credit for their engagement in quality improvement work at the institution.

“VCU School of Medicine is proud to have the opportunity to offer the ABMS Multi-Specialty Portfolio Program to our physicians and faculty who are already very active in quality and safety initiatives,” said Linda Meloy, M.D., medical director of VCU Health Continuing Medical Education and professor of pediatrics at VCU School of Medicine. “Participation in the portfolio program will build upon our physicians’ involvement in those initiatives and will enhance the benefits of their work to our patients. It will also allow our physicians to obtain credit toward recertification for their time and effort.”

The portfolio program sets the standards for identifying, creating opportunities for, and evaluating meaningful participation in organizational quality, safety, improvement, and continuous professional development activities for which sponsor organizations’ physicians may obtain MOC credit. Work through the program contributes to the improvement and evolution of continuous certification, facilitates physician performance in the health care system and enables individuals to actively and willingly engage in assessing and improving the quality of their efforts to improve patient outcomes and the patient care experience. 

“Our involvement in the ABMS Multi-Specialty Portfolio Program supports our goal of becoming America’s safest health system, through reaching zero events of preventable harm to patients, team members and visitors,” said VCU School of Medicine Dean Jerome Strauss, M.D., Ph.D. “This most recent partnership with ABMS reflects our commitment to improving patient care and impacting the lives of the patients and families we serve.” 

The school’s portfolio program is administered through VCU Health Continuing Medical Education. Quality improvement activities with meaningful participation by affiliate faculty will be part of the portfolio program. To date, the portfolio program has helped engage more than 9,000 physicians in practice improvement initiatives at hospitals and health systems across the country, with many showing improvement in care outcomes, and has recognized their participation with maintenance of certification-eligible credit. Since its inception, more than 1,700 improvement efforts have been completed by portfolio program participants.