David S. Festinger (1962-2021).

Memorializes David S. Festinger (1962-2021). He was best known for the impacts of his research contributions in the area of substance abuse treatment-particularly around issues of law and ethics. His interest in researching and promoting ethical principles for research participants was strongly influenced by the experiences of his parents, who were both Holocaust survivors. He served as principal or co-investigator on over 20 National Institutes of Health-funded grants and numerous contracts and grants from other funding agencies. Most of Dr. Festinger's career was spent with the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia. His final affiliation was with the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he conducted research, taught students, and provided clinical supervision to trainees and early career practitioners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Incorporating Physician Input Into a Maintenance of Certification Examination: A Content Validity Tool.

PURPOSE: As part of the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM's) continuing effort to update its Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program, a content validity tool was used to conduct structured reviews of MOC exam blueprints (i.e., test specification tables) by the physician community. Results from the Cardiovascular Disease MOC blueprint review are presented to illustrate the process ABIM conducted for several internal medicine disciplines. METHOD: Ratings of topic frequency and importance were collected from cardiologists in 2016 using a three-point scale (low, medium, high). The web-based survey instrument presented 188 blueprint topic descriptions, each combined with five patient-related tasks (e.g., diagnosis, treatment). Descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis were employed. RESULTS: Responses from 441 review participants were analyzed. Frequency and importance ratings were aggregated as a composite statistic representing clinical relevance, and exam assembly criteria were modified to select questions, or items, addressing clinically relevant content only. Specifically, ≥ 88% of exam items now address high-importance topics, including ≤ 15% on topics that are also low frequency; and ≤ 12% of exam items now address medium-importance topics, including ≤ 3% on topics that are also low frequency. The updated blueprint has been published for test takers and provides enhanced information on content that would and would not be tested in subsequent examinations. It is linked to more detailed feedback that examinees receive on items answered incorrectly. CONCLUSIONS: The blueprint review garnered valuable feedback from the physician community and provided new evidence for the content validity of the Cardiovascular Disease MOC exam.