What’s in Store for the New ABR MOC Exam?

The American Board of Radiology (ABR) is replacing its age-old 10-year Maintenance of Certification (MOC) exam with a new Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA) program. Here’s what you should expect with the new testing protocol:

The new test means that radiologists will no longer have to fly to Tucson or Chicago to take the traditional exam. The ABR took a cue from the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA), which recently introduced an online version of their Maintenance of Certification in Anesthesiology (MOCA) called MOCA Minute. The new exam begins on January 7, 2019.

Every year, radiologists will need to answer a total of 52 out of the 104 available questions. Two questions per week will be sent out, and each question times out in four weeks. To help you meet your annual question quota, the ABR will send out routine emails reminding radiologists to login and answer the multiple choice questions.

Aside from it being remote, the new test is mostly the same to its in-person version. Radiologists determine the scope of the questions by choosing up to three practice areas, which correspond to one or more specialties. Radiologists have reported that for the most part, the interface is intuitive and easy. However, since the system is in its early stages, it’s still trying to pace out the questions in terms of their difficulty, which is why it gives users an opportunity to write down feedback at the end of each question.