October 26, 2011

Beware of “board certified” doctors

You may have seen doctors advertising themselves as “board certified.” If so, beware! No, it doesn’t mean they’re bad doctors. But it also doesn’t mean they're good doctors. Today, board certification doesn’t mean what it used to. And the change could have a significant impact on your health care.

Years ago, board certification was for life. After many years of rigorous training, passing the certification exam meant you had attained a certain level of knowledge, skill, and ability. In the past 25 years though, certification has become temporary. It now has an expiration date. As a result, passing the exam doesn’t mean what it used to.

I’ve experienced these changes. And I’m not happy. I was certified by both the American Board of Family Practice (AAFP) and American Board of Emergency Medicine. I also went through recertification. I did it simply to keep my credentials in an otherwise hostile environment toward alternative doctors. In my opinion, the AAFP exam was a sham. It was so clear to me that passing it was, in no way, a reflection of my qualities as a physician, even a conventional one.

Moreover, to qualify to retake the exam, you must take CME (continuing medical education) courses to accumulate enough hours to suggest you’re keeping up. This is very expensive and time consuming. And, consider that for the course to get CME, it must cow-tow to the private organizations that grant approval for CME. These self-serving groups often demand “evidence based” education, meaning the education is rigged for conventional Pharma approaches.

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If I were to apply for a course to get CME credits and put on the application that I teach how oxidation therapy can cure or mitigate disease, pain and suffering, they would blackball me. Interestingly, though, if a doctor is rich enough to handsomely pay off the self-serving grantors of CME credits, that doctor might get approval where I wouldn’t. I’ve seen it happen! And, if I were to resit for the exams, I’d have to spend countless hours studying materials that I assure you won’t make me a better doctor. So, I recently decided to can them both.

Worse, to renew their license, doctors must get the same type of CME credits even though they don’t have to sit for re-examination. There the instructors further pound them with “in the box” thinking. This continues the “disease maintenance” paradigm, rather than a health promoting, true prevention or “healing” paradigm.

The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons isn’t happy about the changes. They recently sent the following message to all its members! AAPS notes, “Self-appointed expert committees of specialty organizations are now prescribing more and more requirements that force physicians to spend thousands of dollars and take big chunks of time away from their families and practices.” AAPS believes that this is a cottage industry of bureaucrats and testing agencies. Many doctors are taking early retirement rather than go through the expensive process of retaking exams, paying for seminars to prepare, and sacrificing the time. When their certifications lapse, they could lose hospital or other privileges.

Don’t be misled by credentialing. “Board certified” may simply mean that the doctor has been pounded with conventional paradigm dogma. I have allowed both my conventional certifications to lapse. I’d far rather use the time to read, study, and evaluate “out of the box” methods of helping you. Most of my colleagues feel the same way. And even conventional doctors just might not want to sacrifice time and money to pass an exam that doesn’t make them better practicing physicians. I can’t blame them. Fortunately, despite the awful politics, the alternative groups have found ways to get CME approval for many programs. I don’t even bother to try for my in-office oxidation workshops. And the doctors I train that really want to learn healing fortunately don’t seem to care either!

If your doctor’s certification has lapsed, don’t worry. Ask him why. He may tell you he’s turned his attention to something far more useful to keeping you healthy.



http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/site/article/mature_physicians_may
_quit_rather_than_recertify/



Soundview Communication, Inc.

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