Staying up to date on certifications and what is going on in the field of anesthesiology has gotten much easier with the Maintenance of Certification in Anesthesia (MOCA) through The American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA). Brian Allen, M.D. Assistant Professor in Anesthesiology, has been appointed to the MOCA Minute committee effective January 2018.
Allen explained that writers submit questions which are then edited and reviewed by more senior people and his role will be to put the finishing touches on questions and mentor question writers.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to meet and interact more with people who are leaders in the field,” he said. He mentioned the benefits of the new MOCA process versus the old way of getting recertified. In the past, people would get board certified and be certified for life and in more recent years, it was a 10 year cycle. Now in the last two or three years, MOCA has been the standard and anesthesiologists answer 30 questions quarterly through either an app or online. This gives the ABA the ability to touch base with providers every quarter instead of every 10 years.
Working at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has been a benefit to Allen when writing questions. “There are so many creative people with a lot of intellectual curiosity and they really are leaders in their own parts of anesthesiology,” he explained.
In terms of the future of MOCA he said, “I hope the questions for MOCA Minute will stimulate conversation and changes in practice or reinforcement of good practice nationwide.”
“It’s an important task and one that requires a lot of behind the scenes commitment in a role that is kind of thankless but really important,” said Warren Sandberg, M.D., Ph.D. “Personally, I am grateful for faculty that will take these lower profile but really important educational and academic roles. It is an honor to the department that Brian was selected.”