On April 19, 2014, I took the Certification Exam in Medical Quality administered by the American Board of Medical Quality (http://www.abmq.org/). By passing the exam, I am entitled to use the letters CMQ after my name. So my complete professional name is now:
Sunil Kumar Sahai, MD, FAAP, FACP, CMQ
Which, needless to say, is a mouthful, and a pain to write out each time! I never figured that my name would have 13 characters following it. For the time being, I will keep the short form in daily correspondence, but use the full title in formal settings.
So what does this alphabet soup signify?
MD: Doctor of Medicine (hopefully self explanatory) 4 years of medical school.
FAAP: Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics "Pediatricians who maintain their FAAP designation have obtained board
certification in pediatrics and made an ongoing commitment to lifelong
learning and advocacy for children."
FACP: Fellow of the American College of Physicians "Fellowship in the College is an honor. Being an FACP is a distinction
earned from colleagues who recognize your accomplishments and
achievements over and above the practice of medicine. The most important
considerations for ACP Fellowship are excellence and contributions made
to both medicine and to the broader community in which the internist
lives and practices."
CMQ: Certified in Medical Quality "certification for professionals and programs that
present evidence of expertise, experience, and training in the field of
Medical Quality Management, including clinical quality improvement"
Besides having to deal with various re-certification issues, my big pet peeve is that the ABIM and ABP refuse to recognize the CMQ status as counting towards any of the quality improvement modules. It's just more busy and duplicate work, yet the Maintenance of Certification process does not seem to recognize this.
