Elsevier

Practical Radiation Oncology

Volume 5, Issue 6, November–December 2015, Pages 427-432
Practical Radiation Oncology

Special Article
The American Board of Radiology Focused Practice Recognition in Brachytherapy (FPRB) Program: Opportunities lost, lessons learned, and future implications

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prro.2015.08.006Get rights and content

Abstract

In 2011, the American Board of Medical Specialties approved a pilot project submitted by the American Board of Radiology for a Focused Practice Recognition in Brachytherapy initiative. Developers had anticipated significant interest within the profession and had hoped that the project would stimulate clinical interest, research, and education in the modality. A centerpiece of the project was a National Brachytherapy Registry, which was to serve as a dynamic longitudinal database for participants and the profession. Ultimately, the project did not achieve its anticipated goals and was terminated by the American Board of Radiology in 2015. Development, implementation, problems encountered, and potential implications and solutions are discussed.

Section snippets

Concept

In 2010, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) issued a challenge to its 24 member boards (MBs) to submit proposals for innovative demonstration projects intended to create Focused Practice Recognition (FPR) initiatives in areas of their respective disciplines that met specific criteria. The FPR was to be related to an intervention already required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) as an integral part of the essentials for residency training in the

Implementation

To develop its project application, the ABR created an outline based on the ABMS request for proposals and then developed text to support each section. A project task force of 20 senior, committed stakeholders was empaneled. The task force consisted of ABR staff and trustees as well as academic and private practice clinical and organizational brachytherapy leaders. Functioning through a face-to-face meeting and scheduled conference calls with ABR staff support, this group was consulted and

Participation

The ABR FPRB draft was approved by the ABMS board in early 2011, along with another ABR-proposed project in cardiac computed tomography and an American Board of Internal Medicine project for hospital medicine. Projects were designed to have a 1-year development interval, followed by 3 years of implementation and then a 1-year evaluation phase to determine viability for permanent status. Thus, the initial anticipated project closure was April 30, 2016. Following the planned development interval,

Termination

ABR senior staff and trustees, as well as the UCLA DRO members, reviewed program progress on an ongoing basis, and annual reports were filed with the full ABR Board of Trustees and the ABMS. Despite direct provider involvement in the development and implementation of the FPRB, and indications of commitment to enter the program, actual participation was disappointingly low. At the time of the ABR Board of Trustees meeting in February 2015, 249 diplomates had taken the first step in application

Conclusions

Termination of the FPRB project represents a significant disappointment for the ABR, its project partners, and, we believe by extension, for the specialty. It was hoped that the project would stimulate increased educational, research, and clinical initiatives in an important, but apparently declining, radiation oncology modality. Early in discussions of project development, some of the task force members raised the potential of development of a formalized curriculum and application to the ACGME

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Conflicts of interest: None.

Sources of support: The American Board of Radiology gratefully acknowledges support for the Focused Practice Recognition in Brachytherapy through unrestricted educational grants from Varian Medical Systems, Inc., and the American Board of Radiology Foundation.

Disclaimer: Conclusions and recommendations expressed in this manuscript represent the opinion of the authors and should not be considered as policy recommendations by the American Board of Radiology.

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