PRESS RELEASE

American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
For Immediate Release May 12, 2011


SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – James C. Puffer, MD, President of the American Board of Family Medicine delivered the Hough Memorial Lecture entitled, “Quality, Maintenance of Certification and the AMSSM” at the 20th Annual American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 3, 2011.


The conference, with over 1,000 sports medicine physicians from across the United States and five countries around the world in attendance, featured several lectures on advances in sports medicine. Dr. Puffer’s talk began by reviewing the development of the Certificate of Added Qualifications in Sports Medicine that was approved by the ABMS in 1989, with the first certificates issued in 1993. The first fellowships were accredited by the ACGME in 1996. The specialty now has approximately 2,200 certified specialists in the United States.


He indicated that we are now in a changing environment in the delivery of care in the United States. Much of this change has resulted from the publication of the “Crossing the Quality Chasm Report” by the IOM in 2000. This report described our health care system as “frequently falling short in its ability to translate knowledge into practice,” and furthermore that “the absence of progress toward addressing quality and cost is distressing.”


As a result, all specialty boards within the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) have shifted the certification and assessment of physicians from a knowledge-based paradigm to a more “competency-based assessment system.” To this end, the new “Maintenance of Certification” process being implemented by every ABMS specialty board will look for demonstrated evidence of good professional standing, a commitment to lifelong learning and involvement in a periodic self-assessment process, evidence of cognitive expertise, and evaluation of their performance in practice.


Dr. Puffer encouraged the members of AMSSM to help shape the way in which quality will be measured in their specialty by assisting in the development of quality measures that are clinically applicable, by initiating learning collaboratives in a multi-disciplinary manner, and to help establish a clinical data registry.


The health care landscape is changing dramatically,” said Dr. Puffer. It is important that the AMSSM assist its members in rapidly accommodating to the new calculus that will be used to measure performance in this new environment.


The Hough Memorial Lecture is given each year to honor Dr. David Hough who was one of the original founders of AMSSM. His career from 1978 to his untimely death in 1996 was filled with the orderly development of Sports Medicine as a discipline. He was considered a fine teacher, role model and leader at Michigan State University.


In addition to his role as President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Board of Family Medicine in Lexington, KY, Dr. Puffer is a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, in Lexington. Dr. Puffer is an AMSSM Founder and Past President.


The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) is a multi-disciplinary organization of physicians whose members are dedicated to education, research, collaboration and fellowship within the field of Sports Medicine. Founded in 1991, the AMSSM is now comprised of over 1,800 Sports Medicine Physicians whose goal is to provide a link between the rapidly expanding core of knowledge related to sports medicine and its application to patients in a clinical setting.

NOTE: For more information, please contact the AMSSM, 4000 W. 114th St., Suite 100, Leawood, KS 66211, (913) 327-1415.

© The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
4000 W. 114th Street, Suite 100
Leawood, KS 66211
Phone: 913.327.1415


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