The ABHP and the AAHP appreciate the help of the CHPs who have served on the panels of examiners and have donated many hours of their time to develop and grade the examinations. Without their help, the examinations could not have taken place. The members of the panel of examiners were listed in the CHP News insert to the December 1998 Health Physics Society's Newsletter.

AAHP/ABHP Participates in NRC Public Meeting

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been holding a series of facilitated public meetings regarding the proposed revisions to 10 CFR Part 35, "Medical Use of Byproduct Material." The last of these meetings was held at NRC Headquarters during 21-22 October 1998. The ABHP was invited to participate in the morning and afternoon sessions on Training and Experience and in the Participant Discussion on NRC approval of certifying boards and examination providers. Ed Maher attended to represent the ABHP's interests and submitted a report, as summarized here.
The ABHP's going-in position was that ABHP certification should be sufficient training and experience for approval as the RSO for a medical-use license. The current version of the draft 10 CFR Part 35 lists numerous certifications as acceptable for RSO criteria, including the ABHP. During the facilitated meeting, a number of other certifying boards that were omitted wanted to know how to be added to the list of certifications that were acceptable to the NRC.
Some participants felt that there should be other certifying bodies added to 10 CFR 35.900 and asked how the NRC was planning to "approve" future certifying organizations without having to amend the rule. Some participants suggested that the NRC should review every certification program, including sample examinations, to ensure that sufficient testing was being conducted in the radiation safety areas so that NRC would feel comfortable in listing a certification as meeting the RSO requirements. The discussion then turned to whether or not the NRC should administer a separate examination for all individuals that seek to be the listed RSO on a medical license. The general consensus among the participants was that the NRC should not be in the testing business.
The bottom line on this facilitated meeting was that the NRC listened, but offered little indication on which way they were leaning on the issues that were being brought up. Throughout the entire meeting, the NRC representatives acted like opinion "sponges." In retrospect, this impression may have been an artifact of the meeting structure and format. It seemed clear that the NRC had some reservations about naming only particular certifications as acceptable, but they also didn't appear to want to enter into the testing arena. The NRC was in a very tough position on Part 35, and took considerable "heat" from various physician specialty boards (cardiology, radiology, and oncology), who view the NRC as needlessly meddling in their profession.

Regarding the American Board of Medical Physics

Jean St. Germain

The Academy was informed by members of the Executive Committee of the formation of an examining panel by the American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP). This panel has prepared a specialty examination in medical health physics (MHP) and has begun certifying people in that specialty. The examination by the ABMP is a three-part examination, two portions of which are specialized in MHP.
Members of the Executive Committee proposed that the Academy sponsor the specialty examination of the ABMP. After consideration by the Executive committee, the Academy agreed to sponsor this examination. The ABMP wrote a letter to the Academy asking that the Academy designate two Academy members to participate as full members of the ABMP Board. Ken Miller and Dick Vetter agreed to accept this assignment and participated in the meeting and examinations of the ABMP held in Chicago, Illinois, in April 1998. Both Ken and Dick are members of the MHP Panel of the ABMP. Jean St. Germain is the current Chair of the MHP Panel of the ABMP.
The principal sponsor of the ABMP is the American College of Medical Physics (ACMP), which appoints six trustees to the ABMP. The bylaws of the ABMP provide for a minimum of two trustees to each organization and a larger number of trustees proportional to the number of people certified in the specialty. An agreement was reached between the Academy and the ABMP for the Academy to provide $1000/year for five years to support the administrative costs. The ABMP meets at least twice a year. For those meetings in which the Academy representatives are also examiners, the ABMP will support the full travel costs.
Faiz Khan, Chair of the ABMP, Ron Kathren, and Herman Cember held a meeting in conjunction with the Health Physics Society Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At this meeting, the future of the relationship between the ABMP and the Academy was discussed. Some exciting ideas were put forward, including the possibility of the ABMP accepting passing of Part I of the ABHP examination as a criterion for admittance to the Part II ABMP examination. Undoubtedly, more information will follow; it is hoped this provides more clarity regarding the Executive Committee deliberations on this subject that were summarized in the December 1998 CHP News.