CC Part IV - Improving Health and Healthcare

The Part IV requirement applies to all diplomates after renewal of their current certification for their next CC cycle, as well as for those who become newly board certified. 

To satisfy Part IV requirements, diplomates must participate in and document one quality improvement activity every 5 years. Activities that qualify for this requirement are listed below (in alphabetical order).

• ABOHNS-ACCME registered Quality Improvement CME activity
• Achieved accreditation by an approved agency (e.g. JACHO, AAAHC, AAAASF) for an office/office-based surgical center or ambulatory surgery center
• Burnout education/prevention activity
• Current residency program director or associate program director
• Diagnostic error education activities
• Health equity project
• Institutional or CME quality improvement educational activities
• Institutional quality improvement training modules
• Member of a quality improvement committee
• Member of a Clinical Competency Committee
• Mentor for a quality improvement project
• Opioid safety/prescribing educational activities
• OPPE/FPPE activities
• Participated in a root cause analysis (RCA)/debrief
• Participated in a Practice Analysis survey
• Participation as a Board volunteer currently or within the past 5 years (e.g.  Task Force member, oral examiner, exam council member, director)
• Participation in a Workforce Survey
• Participation in MIPS (Merit-based Incentive Payment System)
• Participation in Reg-ent or a Qualified Clinical Data Registry
• Presented at a conference on a quality improvement topic
• Published a quality improvement article
• Quality improvement educational activities
• Regularly participated in M&M conference (at least 6 times in past year)
• Self-designed quality improvement project
• Simulation activity
• Surgical ergonomics training
• Teamwork/communications training (e.g. TeamSTEPPS)

To simplify the process, the requirement to document an activity once every five years is integrated into the annual CC Part I form after the diplomate starts a new CC cycle. Diplomates will be able to track completion on their ABOHNS Physician Portal dashboard.