Annual Reports

Pediatricians routinely monitor a child’s growth and development at well-child visits. Similar checks are part of a pediatrician’s training. The traditional way to track a resident is through knowledge tests and time in training — usually three years of supervised clinical rotations.

But pediatric program directors, among others, have been searching for a better measure of readiness for unsupervised practice.

At any given time in the United States, about one in seven children has a mood or anxiety disorder — or both — that could be improved with medical intervention and treatment.¹ Yet, with only 8,300 practicing child psychiatrists in the country, it can take months for these children to get an appointment with a mental health professional.² And many pediatricians, who are often the first to see young patients, do not feel adequately trained to identify or treat these conditions.³

Nearly one in five children in Wisconsin has a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional illness or condition, such as ADHD, autism, cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. But less than half of those children consistently receive care in a “medical home” that focuses on all aspects of their physical and mental health care needs, ensures that they and their families make informed decisions about their health, and coordinates the child’s care across disciplines and health care systems.¹

From the beginning, the ABP hoped that MOCAPeds, its new online assessment platform, would not only satisfy a pediatrician’s continuing certification examination requirements, but would also foster learning. It was to be “assessment for learning” instead of only “assessment of learning.” The questions would help pediatricians identify gaps in their knowledge, and the rationales that accompany the answers would help them fill those gaps.

However, no one anticipated how many pediatricians would find that MOCA-Peds questions would help them identify and fill gaps in their professional knowledge.