Agenda
Reference: Resources
for Physician Background Checks – A Panel Presentation
Panelist: Kevin Kenward, Director, Survey & Data Resources, American Medical Association (AMA)
American Medical Association
Physician Masterfile
October 2003
Division of Survey and Data Resources
History and Scope
Established in 1906
One of the most comprehensive source of physician data available in the US
Over 1 million physician records; includes 130,000 deceased records
Includes allopathic and osteopathic professions
AMA members and non-members
US, territories, Puerto Rico and Guam
Hospital, medical school, group practice and residency institution databases
Physician & Student Population
Data Collection
Frequency of Masterfile Updates
Addresses (continuously)
US and foreign medical schools (annually)
ECFMG data (twice annually)
Residency training data (annually)
ABMS board certification (quarterly)
Licensure (continuously)
Disciplinary actions (continuously)
DEA (monthly)
Medical Student Data
Data on US medical students reported annually by 126 LCME-accredited medical schools
Unique Medical Education (ME) number is assigned upon entry into medical school; remains invariant throughout individual’s career
Students are tracked throughout their undergraduate medical education
Student file maintains name, address, date and place of birth, telephone number, gender, medical school, and anticipated graduation date
Approximately 68,000 records; average 16,000 student graduates per year
Resident Physician Data
Once US medical students graduate and enter ACGME-accredited training programs, records are "transferred" from Student file to Physician Masterfile
Credentials for international medical school graduates are verified with the ECFMG before establishing a Masterfile record
Annual survey of 8,000 ACGME-accredited training programs
Survey tracks resident physicians throughout their post-graduate medical education
Over 130,000 records updated annually; 95% survey response rate
Physician Data
Unique medical education number linked to associated data
821,000 physicians; over 130,000 deceased physician records
Updated continuously; an average of 30 million transactions per year or 570,000 changes per week
Preferred Professional and Primary Office Addresses, Telephone and Fax numbers
Primary and Secondary Self-designated Practice Specialty
Type of Practice
Licensure and Sanction data
Addresses Obtained Through...
Annual Census of Physicians
AMA Products and Services
11 AMA publications and 32 non-AMA medical journals
Online Data Collection Center
ePhysician Profile service
Membership applications/mailings
National Change of Address file (NCOA)
National Change of Address Service (ACS)
Medical Societies
Additional Sources
Group Practice Updates
Claims Processors
Yellow Pages
Address Type
Preferred Professional Mailing Address (PPMA)
Where a physician designates he/she wishes to receive mail; could be either a home or business address
54% home; 42% office, 4% other
Mailings are 96% deliverable
Professional Office Location (POLo)
Physician’s primary office location
Available for 76% of the physicians involved in direct patient care
Telephone and Fax Numbers
All US telephone and fax numbers are checked to ensure:
valid area code
valid 3-digit exchange for the area code
Telephone: approximately 448,000 numbers
Primarily office
Fax: approximately 317,000 numbers
Type of Practice, Present Employment & Major Professional Activity
Type of Practice - designates nature of physician’s practice (resident, direct patient care, etc.)
Present Employment - describes the physician’s employer (self employed, group, etc.)
Major Professional Activity - combination of Type of Practice and Present Employment (office based, full-time hospital, etc.)
Self-Designated Practice Specialty
Approximately 180 Self-designated Practice Specialties (SDPS) on file
Resident specialty as reported by the program director on the annual census
Primary and Secondary as reported by physician on annual census
Criteria for adding SDPS Codes
Specialty is certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)
An accredited residency or subspecialty training program exists through the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)
Specialty shows a significant number of physicians because of demand for services
Has broad professional support because it presents new concepts in medical science
Is a well-defined new field of medicine that addresses problems of a specific patient group, organ system, disease, or medical procedure
Licensure & Disciplinary Data
Licensure data updated at a minimum of every 180 days; over 45% of the states procured monthly
Maintain an established link between state license number and AMA medical education number
Disciplinary Actions updated daily
State Board
DEA
Medicare/Medicaid
Action details linked to state license number and/or DEA registration number
Over 12 million updates processed annually
Specialty Board Certification
Voluntary procedure to gain formal recognition of expertise in a field
Must meet requirements and pass the board examination
Data reported quarterly from American Board of Medical Specialties
Approximately 70% of allopathic physicians are board certified
Data Quality Initiatives
100 mile radius program to ensure address accuracy
Insure fax and phone are correlated with zip code
Monthly adjustment of unclassified type of practice
Utilize reported address changes as a method to capture other practice changes or to trigger a survey mailing
Conversion to the Association Information Management System (AIM), client/server relational database
Numerous business rules incorporated
Exception reports produced weekly to monitor quality
The AMA Masterfile supports many activities
Membership
Publications
Credentialing
Books and Products
Database Licensing
Research
QUESTIONS?
Monica Quiroz, Director
Physician Data & Internet Services
312 464-4153
monica_quiroz@ama-assn.org
Julie Bain, Data Procurement Supervisor
312 464-4055
julie_bain@ama-assn.org
Amy Holzhausen, Disciplinary Action Data Manager
312 464-5317
amy_holzhausen@ama-assn.org