Internal medicine board certification and career pathways in Japan

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Hideaki Kawaguchi¹  Hideo Yasunaga²  Masatoshi Matsumoto³  Hiroo Ide⁴  Masahisa Shimpo⁵  Soichi Koike⁶ 

[1] Department of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, 113-0033, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan;Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Health Economics, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, 113-0033, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan;Department of Community Based Medical System, Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi, 734-8551, Minami-ku, Hiroshima, Japan;Department of Medical Community Network and Discharge, Chiba University Hospital, 1-8-1 Inohana, 260-8677, Chuo, Chiba, Japan;Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, 3311-1 Yakushiji, 329-0498, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan;Division of Health Policy and Management, Center for Community Medicine, Jichi Medical University, 3311-1 Yakushiji, 329-0498, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan;Department of Health Management and Policy, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, 113-0033, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan;

关键词: Board certification;    Subspecialty;    Maintenance of certification;    Career pathway;    Internal medicine;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12909-017-0919-y

 received in 2016-04-02, accepted in 2017-04-26,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundEstablishing and managing a board certification system is a common concern for many countries. In Japan, the board certification system is under revision. The purpose of this study was to describe present status of internal medicine specialist board certification, to identify factors associated with maintenance of board certification and to investigate changes in area of practice when physicians move from hospital to clinic practice.MethodsWe analyzed 2010 and 2012 data from the Survey of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists. We conducted logistic regression analysis to identify factors associated with the maintenance of board certification between 2010 and 2012. We also analyzed data on career transition from hospitals to clinics for hospital physicians with board certification.ResultsIt was common for physicians seeking board certification to do so in their early career. The odds of maintaining board certification were lower in women and those working in locations other than academic hospitals, and higher in physicians with subspecialty practice areas. Among hospital physicians with board certification who moved to clinics between 2010 and 2012, 95.8% remained in internal medicine or its subspecialty areas and 87.7% maintained board certification but changed their practice from a subspecialty area to more general internal medicine.ConclusionRevisions of the internal medicine board certification system must consider different physician career pathways including mid-career moves while maintaining certification quality. This will help to secure an adequate number and distribution of specialists. To meet the increasing demand for generalist physicians, it is important to design programs to train specialists in general practice.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017