How It Works

Maintenance of Certification

For the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) pathway, you are asked to read three expert selected and lifestyle medicine specific articles each year. You will be asked a series of questions about each article, with the expectation that you get 80% of these questions right, to fulfill the MOC annual requirements. Additionally, you will be asked to submit proof of 30 hours of LM specific CME every 5 years. As long as you fulfill these requirements and stay on the MOC pathway, you will be continuously certified, and no re-certification exam is required at the end of your 10 year anniversary. It is as simple as that.

The MOC Rules in detail:

Each diplomate must sign up for the MOC pathway via the LMMOC website, during the first three months of the year following their initial certification (i.e. certified in 2020, sign up between January 1st and March 31^st, 2021)

Each diplomate must pay the relevant annual MOC fee via credit card each year. Non-payment of the annual fee is regarded as an opt-out and a return to the 10 year recertification regimen.

Each diplomate must read the three carefully selected articles published on the MOC site and answer 80% of the questions about the article correctly to maintain certification each year. Every 5 years, each diplomate must also submit proof of 30 hours of LM specific CME.

To be issued with your new certificate at your 10 year certification anniversary, you must submit proof of your then current credentials (license to practice, ABMS certification for US physicians, current registrations for allied health professionals etc.)

Diplomates who have failed to meet the annual requirement at the end of each calendar year will have until March 31st the following year to rectify the situation. Failing that, they will revert to the original recertification pathway. The same applies to the failure to submit the 30 hours of CME each 5 year period. They have until March 31st in year 6 to rectify the situation. Failing that, they will revert to the original recertification pathway.

For drop-outs within the first 5 years, the original 10 year anniversary applies.

For drop-outs after the first 5 years, recertification is due 5 years from the drop-out date.

There is no option to “buy back in”, i.e. drop-outs are no longer eligible for the MOC pathway!

Maintain your certification

4368 Central Avenue Riverside, CA, 92506, USA Email: [email protected]

OUR MISSION

The International Board of Lifestyle Medicine (IBLM) sets and maintains standards for assessment and credentialing of physicians in Lifestyle Medicine. Certification as an IBLM diplomate signifies specialized knowledge in the practice of lifestyle medicine and distinguishes a physician as having achieved competency in lifestyle medicine.