Done your LLSA yet?

[ERMudPhud]

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Anybody else taken their LLSA (lifelong learning self assesment), an annual test based on twenty assigned articles that board certified EM physicians have to take in order to maintain their eligibillity for recertification, yet. I took mine last night while watching Kill Bill vol1 on the DVD and I have three complaints.

1. $90! That means over the 10 years between certifications I will have spent $900 and still have to pay to take the recertification exam. That seems alot more expensive than the old way.

2. Poor test questions. Some questions were obvious and stupid like one that essentially borrowed the exact case presentation used to introduce one of the assigned articles. Other questions were so poorly written, ambiguous, or plain wrong that even after carefully rereading the article I still couldn't answer them-fortunately I was able to guess what they were looking for.

3. Quentin Tarantino makes visually and stylistically stunning movies but he sure is sick and twisted

 

[spyderdoc]

I have the articles. I just have to get off my butt and do the thet...Did you use any CME courses, like the ACEP or EMR stuff that gives a bunch of CME's? I feel I should get CME for doing the test, so I think I will subscribe to one of them...
As far as cost, yes it is super expensive, but ABEM's reasoning is that it will actually cost about the same when you take into account travelling expenses to get to the test sites. Being that I live in LA, it will cost a lot more for me, since I would have no travelling expenses....I guess if I lived in Utah, I would save money....
Yes, Kill Bill rocked!
Mark

 

[Sessamoid]

Haven't done the concert exam yet. Lazily working my way through the articles. Some of them seem really pointless for us. I signed up for some online CME, figuring that if I'm going to spend all this time reading them, I might as well get some credit for it.

 

[spyderdoc]

Which one did you sign up for? I already subscribe to emergency medicine reports...But I wonder if I should go with the ACEP version instead? Any input? I agree if I am gonna spend allthe time doing the reading, I sure do want credit for it....
Mark

 

[Sessamoid]

http://www.emedhome.com/index.cfm

I signed up for this one. Pretty cheap and easy.

 

[docB]

Doesn't it seem like ABEM is trying to make up for some kind of inferiority complex by making things just ridiculously complex and time consuming?

 

[Sessamoid]

I just looked at the one ACEP is touting. The other advantage to the emed CME (besides being much cheaper) is that they offer more hours of CME for the same readings.

I used to subscribe to EMR, but I became tired of the middling quality of the materials. Much like the LLSA, some of them didn't even have much application to our specialty. I'm probably going to try out some of the audio CME programs. Some of them come highly recommended. There was a discussion of the audio CME programs a few months ago on the emed-l listserv.