Committee Tree
The Subcommittee on Practice Guidelines
The need for this Subcommittee is twofold:
- The AAPM is routinely asked to review or participate in the accreditation and certification processes provided by affiliated organizations and these requests are generally directed by staff to a relevant committee, subcommittee or working group. This route, however, is not monitored and so the need is apparent for a central resource to serve as the contact point for such requesting organizations. This SC would be positioned to assign any such requests to one or more relevant groups within AAPM, coalesce their contributions and present a response or report consistent with the mission of the Association.
- Some of the Task Group reports published by the AAPM present a wide range of performance tests or QA processes that can be completed for a particular modality or process. Full-time clinical physicists in medium-size and smaller centers, which generally have more limited resources, often find it difficult to determine the minimum subset of the TG’s complete report that is required to ensure consistent high quality given the range of clinical uses at their center. Furthermore, state regulators have, in some instances, unfortunately adopted entire sections of TG reports as regulatory requirements despite the clarification in all TG reports that such use would be inappropriate. This SC would be charged with reviewing TG reports prior to publication, and determining which reports would benefit from an accompanying Implementation Guide. For those reports deemed to benefit from such a guide, the SC would be responsible for generating and publishing the Implementation Guide, through a collaborative effort with the originating Task Group.
The specific Charges are:
- Receive requests for medical physics assistance from other groups relative to their practice or facility accreditation programs or professional certification programs.
- Evaluate the requests for appropriateness and assign them to the appropriate Committee, Sub Committee or Working Group within the Association.
- Receive drafts or comments from the AAPM groups and compose an official response or position to submit to the AAPM Board of Directors.
- Evaluate all draft Task Group reports prior to publication, to determine whether a Clinical Implementation Guide would be appropriate and of benefit to AAPM members.
- For TG reports deemed to benefit from a Clinical Implementation Guide, generate and publish the Guide through a collaborative effort with the originating TG. The Clinical Implementation Guide should outline the minimum portions of the total TG report that should be implemented to ensure high quality within the scope of clinical services provided.