Approved Quality Improvement Pathway

Health care organizations offering robust quality improvement (QI) activities can submit them to ABIM for approval in the Approved Quality Improvement (AQI) pathway. The AQI pathway grants Self-Evaluation of Practice Performance points to diplomates participating in external QI activities.

ABIM approves structured QI activities that:

• Focus on clinical topics related to a national priority, regional initiative or local gap in patient care and relevant to ABIM board certified physicians.
• Utilize nationally recognized and/or evidence-based performance measures.
• Identify specific organizational- and activity-level goals and objectives.
• Incorporate robust QI resources and/or tools directly related to the program objectives.
• Require sufficient and active participation by physicians in all stages of the activity.
• Include a strong infrastructure and resources to support and monitor the activity.

QI activities currently approved through the AQI Pathway.

To Submit an Activity for Approval

Interested organizations should review the requirements carefully then e-mail qualityimprovement@abim.org for an application (as of June 1, 2012, version 4.0 is the only version accepted).

• E-mail completed applications to qualityimprovement@abim.org. ABIM has moved away from application deadlines in favor of a rolling review process.
• Submit a non-refundable application fee of $1,250 for each activity submitted. ABIM will invoice you upon receipt of your application.
• Review of application by ABIM takes approximately 8-12 weeks. During the review period, applicants may be asked to clarify information about their activity.

Activities that meet the AQI requirements will receive approval for two years and must be submitted for re-approval at the end of the approval period. There is a non-refundable renewal fee of $800.

Appeals

• Written feedback will be provided for all denied applications. Requests for phone counseling or conference calls with reviewers cannot be accommodated at this time.
• Applications that are denied may be revised and resubmitted once. ABIM's decision on any revised application will be final and not subject to further appeal.
• Subsequent resubmissions will be considered new applications subject to the AQI requirements and the application fee in effect at that time.