Psychopharmacology Master Course to Offer MOC Credit

Get an extra mile out of this continuing medical education course.

APA is offering an opportunity to earn maintenance of certification (MOC) credit through an innovative and interactive course at this year’s Annual Meeting. Participants in the master course “Essential Psychopharmacology,” directed by Alan F. Schatzberg, M.D., will be eligible to earn both self-assessment credit (Part 2 of MOC) and Performance-in-Practice (PIP) chart review (Part 4 of MOC) credit.

The course will be held Tuesday, May 17, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Marriott Marquis. It will cover the latest information on the pharmacologic treatment of major psychiatric disorders and include case discussions.

For the self-assessment activity, participants will take a pretest using an audience response system (ARS). A projector and screen will display each multiple-choice question in turn. After participants have entered their answer into the ARS, the course director will reveal the correct answer, as well as the distribution of audience responses.

Participants will be eligible to earn up to two hours of self-assessment credit (Part 2 of MOC) through participation in the live multiple-choice question review during the course (using the audience keypads) and by completing a post-course follow-up in the APA Learning Center.

For the clinical PIP module activity, participants will review five charts before the course using a tool available to course registrants in the APA Learning Center. They should choose one of the following medication classes for the chart review: SSRIs, benzodiazepines, atypical antipsychotics, or anticonvulsants/lithium. APA will send those participating in the clinical PIP activity instructions for accessing the tools for quality measures that they should assess on five charts for one of the medication classes.

After the meeting, participants who wish to obtain MOC PIP credit must log in to the APA learning management system and complete Stage A and Stage B of the PIP module for one of the medication classes. To finish the clinical PIP module, participants must also complete Stage C by reviewing five more charts (of the same patient or different patients) one month to two years after the course and note improvements, as well as complete an online evaluation. ■