Winds of change at the American Board of Surgery: An interview with Executive Director Jo Buyske, MD, FACS

SN: Many of our readers are general surgeons. What do you think the new approach to recertification will mean to general surgeons?

Dr. Buyske: General surgery is a large umbrella. I have thought for years that the MOC is a general surgery exam. It covers the entire waterfront of surgery, but it doesn’t represent how people actually practice. But the new approach will apply to the many ways that people practice general surgery.

We know from our research that most general surgeons perform about 10 different operations, depending on where they live and what their interests are. And each general surgeon has a different list of operations. We want the recertification process to reflect and be relevant to each surgeon’s list of around 10, although it may be too high an expectation to have this ready by 2018. But we will begin, and we will roll out more options as time goes on.
 

SN: Anti-MOC legislation has been initiated in several states recently, some of which involved laws that prevent hospitals, licensing boards, insurance companies, and health systems from requiring MOC. How is the ABS responding to this trend?

Dr. Buyske: When ABS becomes aware of a particular legislative movement along these lines, we reach out to directors and senior directors and ask them to write to their state legislators and to testify. What we really want is to be allowed to continue to self-regulate our profession. We don’t want the government to intervene with the process that hospitals and insurance companies use to hire staff and compensate surgeons. For legislation to dictate how hospitals hire is a slippery slope. I feel strongly that it is incumbent that we police our own standards.

It is a fair expectation of our patients that physicians in our field keep up to date and demonstrate this. I have to dispute the argument that patients should “just trust us.” The whole argument that being up to date is unnecessary and insulting is just off base. People from all lines of work are required to demonstrate that they are up to date on their profession. You can argue that the methods used in the surgical profession are currently not the best, but not that the principle of maintenance of currency in our field is invalid. I continue to believe in the value of certification.
 

SN: What would you like to tell us about ABS that surgeons may be unaware of or may not have a the complete picture of?

Dr. Buyske: I would like your readers to get a sense of how much volunteer effort goes into the certification process. We have 30+ volunteer directors that give 30 days per year of time – an amazing commitment. We invite local surgeons to give examinations with us. We also have a 200+ pool of surgeons who write questions for the exams and another pool of 600 surgeons who help out in a variety of ways. We work to make sure there is a great diversity of people who take part – from all over the country, from different points in the surgical career, specialists, fellowship and nonfellowship surgeons, etc. We have people from rural practices, from the military, and some just 1 year out of training. We also have a “standard setting” meeting where we revisit and review questions to make sure they are pertinent and to evaluate their difficulty. We invite surgeons who have never done any work for the board to help us review our examinations. These can be daylong events or 4-day–long events, and most of the work is done by volunteer surgeons as a contribution to their profession.

SN: How would you describe your leadership style, and how do you think it will play out in the reinvention of the certification process?Dr. Buyske: My leadership mode is collaborative. When it comes to the new look of recertification, I have my opinions about what I want it to look like, and I think they are in line with ideas of other ABS leaders, but I don’t want to hamstring the task force in advance, before it has had a chance to do its work. I have ideas, but I consider it my job to be convincing and persuasive and listen to other very smart and committed people on the board, and they have the opportunity to try to convince me. I am grateful every day for the quality of the people I work with, both here in the office and the volunteer directors, the leaders in surgical societies, and ABS leaders.

SN: Is there something in particular you would like to say to Diplomates who are reading this?Dr. Buyske: I would say to them that I feel in my heart that we are all on the same side: We all want to take good care of the patients. The charge of the board is to protect the public and enhance the profession, and both of those things are of great importance to me. I still take care of patients, I go to the hospital, I put on scrubs, I train with residents, and I deal with the electronic medical record. I really honor the hard work required to take care of patients. And I understand the gravity of the charge of the board, which is to protect the public and enhance the profession. We all want that and we are all on the same side.