A Concise Guide to Maintenance of Certification

A continuing commitment to lifelong learning

 

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What is the Maintenance of Certification Program?

The MOC Program is an evidence-informed educational initiative designed to support, enhance and promote the continuing professional development (CPD) activities of MOC Program participants. To support this lifelong learning strategy, the MOC Program’s goals are focused on supporting learning that enhances the knowledge, competencies and performance required for your professional practice.

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As a MOC Program participant you are responsible for developing and implementing a personal CPD plan relevant to your roles and responsibilities by engaging in learning activities included within the MOC learning framework.

Features of the new MOC Program

The revised MOC Program is streamlined and more flexible, offering a wider range of learning activities for managing your continuing professional development.

Expanded

Promotes the integration of group learning with self-assessment and practice assessment activities, including simulation activities for individual physicians or interprofessional health care teams.

Evidence-informed

Meets the identified perspectives and experiences of MOC Program participants and reflects the evidence from the CPD research literature.

Outcome-informed

Requires MOC Program participants to identify a learning outcome for their practice for each learning activity.

Flexible

Incorporates a blended credit system, offering MOC Program participants more flexibility in engaging in learning activities.

Simplified framework

The updated MOC Program learning framework reduces the number of learning sections from six to three: group learning, self-learning and assessment.

Section 1: Group learning

Conferences, courses, rounds, journal clubs and small-group learning, either face-to-face or web-based, are part of this section.

Section 2: Self-learning

Activities planned to address specific needs, enhance awareness of new evidence potentially relevant to practice or enhance the quality of multiple systems are part of this section.

Section 3: Assessment

Activities that provide data and feedback to physicians or health teams that facilitate the identification of needs in areas of knowledge, skills, competencies and performance are part of this section.

The credit system includes

Credits based on time

  • Attending an accredited conference earns one credit per hour.
  • Completing a personal learning project earns two credits per hour.
  • Participating in assessment activities earns three credits per hour.

Credits based on completion of an activity or program

  • Developing a clinical practice guideline earns 20 credits per year.
  • Reading a journal article earns one credit per article.

Partial credits

  • Listening to a podcast earns 0.5 credits per activity.

See the Framework of CPD Activities for more details and examples.

Fellows and MOC Program participants with new MOC cycles starting on or after January 1, 2014, must complete at least 25 credits in each section of the MOC Program before their cycle ends. Please visit royalcollege.ca/CycleMinimums to learn more.

 

Framework of continuing professional development activities

View the Framework.

Framework of continuing professional development activities

Using the MOC Program

MOC Program cycle requirements

The MOC Program is based on a five-year cycle, the first cycle beginning January 1 of the year following admission to the program. You must complete a minimum of

  • 40 credits per year, and
  • 400 credits over each five-year cycle.
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Each year, you will be able to print a MOC status report of the credits you have completed. A completion certificate will be available online when you complete a five-year MOC cycle.

Reporting credits

MOC Program participants self-report their participation in approved learning activities and record the learning outcomes identified or achieved through MAINPORT, a web application that serves as an online learning support system.

Bonus period

The time between when a Fellow joins the Royal College and a cycle starts is considered the bonus period in which Fellows can complete activities that contribute to their cycle requirements. Other MOC Program participants may be eligible for a bonus period depending on their date of registration.

Credit validation

Credit validation is for MOC Program participants who missed the January 31 submission deadline. Such individuals can continue to submit their learning activities through MAINPORT but must provide supporting documentation for these activities to contribute to their cycle credits. Documentation can be attached as a file to the MAINPORT submission or can be mailed or faxed to the Royal College’s Office of Professional Affairs.

For more information email validation@royalcollege.ca
View frequently asked questions about the MOC Program.

Using MAINPORT ePortfolio



MAINPORT is a web application for documenting your learning activities, managing your continuing professional development and accessing learning resources and programs.

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Key features of MAINPORT

My Holding Area

MAINPORT’s My Holding Area allows you to begin the process of documenting a learning activity, save your work and return to finish it later. You can review activities awaiting credit validation and those activities automatically uploaded by other organizations.

My Reports

In MAINPORT you can print a Credit Summary report displaying your total MOC credits by year and MOC section, a Yearly MOC Adherence letter confirming the number of credits completed in a given year, a Transcript of CPD Activities that provides a summary of all your entered CPD activities, and a MOC Completion Certificate when you have successfully completed a MOC cycle.

My CPD Planning

MAINPORT enables you to document professional practice goals, set a plan and date to complete each goal, and link future learning activities and track progress to accomplishing each goal.

Enter a CPD activity

You can document completed learning activities and outcomes using simple templates created for the group learning, self-learning and assessment sections. MAINPORT enables you to attribute every learning activity to one or more CanMEDS Roles.

MOC Resources

MAINPORT provides you with links to databases, self-assessment programs, tools, and many online journals. The My Resources section of the dashboard enables you to add personal resources for quick access.

Help with MAINPORT ePortfolio is available through a Quick Start Guide. You can also contact the Royal College Services Centre via email at cpd@royalcollege.ca or phone 1-800-461-9598 or 613-730-6243.

Accessing MAINPORT ePortfolio

MAINPORT can be accessed at mainport.royalcollege.ca. To log in, you will need your Royal College ID and password. If you do not know your password or need to change it, please contact the Royal College Services Centre. In addition, the Royal College has developed a mobile device application that enables you to access MAINPORT from your iPhone, iPad or BlackBerry.

MOC Program participants

When you join the Royal College as a Fellow, you are automatically registered in the MOC Program.

Participation in the MOC Program is mandatory for specialists admitted into or renewing membership in the Royal College and using the FRCPC and FRCSC designations to practise. All MOC Program participants are included in the public Directory of Fellows. The following categories of membership in the Royal College are required to participate in the MOC Program:

  • Active Fellows (full-time or part-time practice)
  • Fellows engaged in related professional activities
  • International Fellows
  • Fellows continuing in fellowships following certification

The following Fellows are exempt from participation:

  • Fully-retired Fellows
  • Resident affiliates
  • Fellows on health or family-related leave of absence

Program information for licensed specialists

Specialists with a licence to practise in Canada may join the MOC Program to meet provincial physician revalidation requirements, for personal or professional reasons, or to meet their workplace requirements. Such participants pay a registration fee each year for access to the MAINPORT web application, Royal College support services and regional CPD educators. For international medical graduates participating in the Practice Ready Assessment and Practice Eligibility Route, special requirements and exemptions apply.

 

Getting assistance with the MOC Program

As your main point of contact and assistance, the Royal College Services Centre is available by phone, email or fax. You may also contact the CPD educator in your region or province for extra assistance.

CPD educators

The Royal College has recruited 17 CPD educators who practise across each region of Canada and assist MOC Program participants in their CPD learning. For a list of CPD educators, visit: royalcollege.ca/cpdeducators.

Royal College Services Centre

The Royal College Services Centre can be reached at: 1-800-461-9598 or 613-730-6243.

For MAINPORT and Royal College website password information, email: cpd@royalcollege.ca

For membership inquiries, email: membership@royalcollege.ca

For general continuing professional development inquiries, email: cpd@royalcollege.ca