Big Data, Thick Data, All Data – Leveraging Data to Research, Inform, and Promote Board Certification

Description: The Member Boards are data-rich organizations. From physician demographic information to performance data on qualifying and certification examinations and assessments, Member Boards manage large databases. Member Boards may also collect qualitative data for deeper understanding of topics of interest. These data can be linked to external data sources with information on payment, clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, or physician well-being to create research tools to not only inform and innovate the certification process, but also communicate the value of certification.

Each board has varying ways of collecting, managing, and utilizing data. The American Board of Emergency Medicine would like to facilitate a conversation that highlights the spectrum of ways data is leveraged from large, resource-rich research departments to budding new programs and everything in between. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and the ABMS community can learn from one another by sharing best practices and innovations of their own data management and utilization.

Panelists will engage in discussions about their own boards’ experiences in leveraging data to perform research. Audiences will be invited to participate in the conversation about future directions in transforming information into action.

Topics to be discussed:

• Opportunities for data use to inform and promote certification activities and communicate the value of certification.
• Data security and privacy
• Data sharing/data use agreements
• Public use data (e.g. Medicare claims)
• Data fees
• Data use among and between ABMS Member Boards
• Data from external partners (e.g. ACGME)
• Aspirational data use horizons (e.g. AI, machine learning)