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Donald G. Langsley, MD

JAMA. 1991;265(6):772.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Two interdependent themes that dominate current thinking about health care are periodic physician recredentialing and standard setting. The goals are said to be assurance of quality of care, competence of the practitioner, and cost containment. The New York State proposal described by Gellhorn¹ is an example of the use of the power of licensure for periodic review of the individual physician's competence. Though patently unpopular—who wants to be retested?—it deserves critical appraisal.

The 23 states that require continuing medical education as a condition of reregistration of the medical license hoped that this would assure competence. Unhappily, there has been little evidence that continuing medical education alters practice and no guarantee that physicians choose the courses that are most needed in their practice.²

From its beginnings, the American Board of Medical Specialties espoused the necessity for time-limited rather than lifetime certification. A 1973 resolution that called for voluntary recertification . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the office of the Executive Vice President, American Board of Medical Specialties, Evanston, Ill.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Executive Vice President, American Board of Medical Specialties, One Rotary Center, Suite 805, Evanston, IL 60201-4889 (Dr Langsley).

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