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Doctors 'Cheating' On Board Certifications
Maximum Prophet writes "After taking board exams, doctors have been routinely getting together to remember and reproduce as much of the exam as they can. These notes are then bound and reproduced. According to the American Board of Dermatology, the exams are protected by copyright laws, and any reproduction not approved by the board is illegal. While I have no doubt that the Board believes this, and pays lawyers to believe it as well, I don't think they understand copyright. Perhaps they should invest in better testing methods."
Speaking as an MD, and posting anonymously through more proxy jumps than you can count, I can tell you that the ABR is a disgrace.
They have elected to ELIMINATE the oral exams. Whats next, calling us providers?
Humans are not computer problems, and solving computer questions is not an appropriate screening method for certification.
Bottom line: Oral Examiners should be PAID, CAREFULLY TRAINED, GRADED and only the BEST kept year after year... like NFL REFS !
Of course, the overpaid ABR administration might* have to take a pay cut to achieve this.... AND THEREFORE, THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
A DISGRACE UPON MEDICINE
That if they just ensure they collect the exams at the end, and forbid copies, and forbid anyone talking about the exam, that they'll never have to write a new exam.
I thought prohibiting students from sharing past copies of tests was a standard and acceptable method. Is it because they are using copyright to attack the practice?
The American method of 'learning' is mostly rote learning. This does not help. As Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
How shall we as Americans be able to steer our future when what we mostly test is the ability to cram? As a former educator, one of my best times in class was when a student was 'teaching' me. Even when they were wrong, the dialogue enriched both of us and for the student, it was invaluable.
Multiple choice questions make matters worse. No wonder foreign kids beat us in math and science. It's not funny at all.
I had a chance to teach a group of refugees from an African country and it was amazing to see how they approached a problem. While our Americanized kids reached for their calculators, these kids internalized the problem in their heads, then wrote down the range of where they thought the answer would lie, then solved the question. 100% of the time, they were right.
I will ask my doctor what she thinks about this issue when I see her in a fortnight.
MD degree is to long and the school mindset may be to much drilled in to people. Going to med school do they really need a full 4 year BA with all the filler classes before med school? Why not 2-3 years and then Med school? Now I can see what that setting in a class room for years with lot's of tests and some stuff that you will never use can do to your mindsets. Testes become more about craning for the test then studying the full topics. Now some of this comes from poor tests and the other part comes from the tech the test idea.
The American method of 'learning' is mostly rote learning. This does not help. As Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Really? As a Canadian living in Romania, I have to strongly disagree. The education system here appears to be heavily based on rote learning (much moreso than I saw in Canada or attending American schools in my childhood). The folks I have hired have had excellent imagination, in spite of, not because of, their education (and have generally been the ones who skipped a lot of classes at university and taught themselves the required material).
That said, I previously worked (in Canada) as a physics researcher in a hospital, and we would regularly "joke" about the MDs not being "real doctors" (in contrast to how most people view PhDs), since their main skill appeared to be rote memorization. (See also Richard Feynman's story about his diagram of cat anatomy when he gave a presentation to some med students.) Of couse, as a sibling post says, most medicine comes down to reproducing what is already known (as it should be).
I now look at doctors the way I look at lawyers. To get in, you don't need to be creative (and in fact, you probably shouldn't be, or should suppress it until you've already proven yourself), you just need to know the existing "case law" very very well. Mostly, your job is to identify stuff that has been seen before (taking into account quite a lot of subtle data) and go directly to the most successful known solution. If you want to be imaginative as a doctor, you can go the MD/PhD route (which, in my opinion, makes you a superstar), I suppose, or run the risk of losing your job by doing something no one else has done before (and hence is not "approved").
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After my wife's back surgery two years ago, we got a statement from insurance regarding her surgeon. He's great, did a good job, and was on our insurance because we made damn sure of that before we let him start cutting.
Then we got a statement from insurance regarding his "assistant". His "assistant" was the other doctor in his practice, helped during the three hour surgery, and wasn't on our insurance. They'd only cover him at 70% and with no "negotiated in-network discount" so we owed like $9,000 more than we'd expected.
I did exactly what I wanted to do... filed that insurance form and waited for the bill, intending to call the doctor's office and threaten to sue them since they never told me the surgery needed an assistant, nor that the assistant would charge separately, nor that the assistant didn't accept the same insurance companies.
The thing is...the bill never came. And, 70% of his full rate paid by my insurance company was way more than 100% of the "negotiated in-network discount" rate he would have received if he had accepted my insurance. So even though I'm required by my insurance company (and probably by law) to pay a 30% copay with out-of-network doctors, I was never billed or contacted to pay it.
Her back surgeon was a really good surgeon - the best in the area and one of the best in the state. But did his partner defraud my insurance company? Was I complicit by not reporting to them that I never received a bill for the copay? Or did the doctor realize they'd messed up, realize that they'd never be able to gouge me for the money, and decide to be satisfied with the hefty check from the insurance company? I'm left wondering.
(I'm also left worried that someone with a big legal team could think I did something illegal, so posting anonymously. Sorry I won't see replies.)