In 2002, the Post-Licensure Assessment System (PLAS) implemented a program to offer assessments of physicians' medical knowledge, clinical judgment, decision-making, patient management skills and clinical and communications skills through the utilization of high-quality, standardized assessment tools. The assessment protocols developed by the PLAS were designed to meet the needs of hospitals, state or territorial licensing boards and healthcare organizations that had quality of care concerns about a physician. The protocol were also designed for use by individual physicians interested in upgrading or improving their clinical or communication skills upon return to practice or consideration of a career transition or due to isolation from traditional continuing medical education activities and medical peers. An overview of the various assessment modalities developed by the PLAS is provided under Description of Assessment Modalities.

Assessments were administered at the FSMB's offices in Dallas and at the NBME's offices on Philadelphia and results were summarized in a report that presented a broad picture of the physician's strengths and weaknesses and recommended possible remediation strategies when appropriate.

In 2004, the FSMB and the NBME recognized the importance of seeking to achieve standardization in physician assessment across the country. The FSMB and the NBME began collaborating with existing assessment programs that have the capability to provide localized, performance-based assessments in conjunction with the standardized assessment tools developed through the PLAS. Collaboration with local programs allows for a more comprehensive assessment that can be tailored to the individual physician's practice and enables the physician to obtain assessment at a center that is more geographically convenient. Since the majority of collaborators are associated with medical schools and training programs, education and remediation can also be incorporated as part of the assessment process.

In late 2005, the Post-Licensure Assessment System phased out the assessment services offered at the FSMB and the NBME offices in order to focus on further developing these collaborative relationships. Physicians and agencies interested in an assessment are encouraged to contact PLAS staff for more information or to contact a national collaborator to determine how the program can meet their needs.

Future plans include ensuring that remediation capabilities are available through national collaborators and developing a research agenda to evaluate the impact of assessment and remediation on physician practice.