Humayun Chaudhry - Advocacy of "Maintenance of Licensure" (MOL)

Advocacy of "Maintenance of Licensure" (MOL)

In 2010, the House of Delegates of the Federation of State Medical Boards approved a policy framework for "Maintenance of Licensure" (MOL) that recommends that all U.S. physicians, as a condition of licensure renewal, "should provide evidence of participation in a program of professional development and lifelong learning." The MOL framework proposes three components: reflective self-assessment, assessment of knowledge and skills, and performance in practice.

Chaudhry chairs a CEO Advisory Council that advises the FSMB's Board of Directors and works with an FSMB MOL Implementation Group, which has recommended that physicians actively engaged in the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program of the American Board of Medical Specialties, or the Osteopathic Continuous Certification (OCC) program of the American Osteopathic Association, should be recognized as "substantially in compliance" with any MOL program that is adopted by a state. For those physicians not board-certified in a specialty of medicine or surgery, or for those not engaged in MOC or OCC, the program envisions states offering multiple options by which each of the components of MOL can be achieved for licensure renewal.

On August 5, 2010, Chaudhry joined David Blumenthal, M.D., President Barack Obama's National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and Marilyn Tavenner, then Principal Deputy Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where Chaudhry noted that "health information technology, generally, and electronic health records, in particular, could be of value as doctors fulfill (their) professional obligation and demonstrate ongoing clinical competence through MOL."