EFFORTS TO IMPROVE AVIATION MEDICAL EXAMINER PERFORMANCE THROUGH CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION AND ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORTS

Continuing medical education (CME) serves to maintain or increase the knowledge, interpretive proficiencies and technical skills that a physician uses in his/her practice of medicine. Resulting improvement in professional performance is frequently difficult to measure, particularly in aerospace medicine, but CME is required for relicensure and/or for medical society membership in 70% of states. The Civil Aeromedical Institute first received American Medical Association approval for Category I CME credit for attendance at Federal Aviation Administration seminars in January 1973. We began preparing 21-item annual performance reports for each aviation medical examiner (AME) in 1979 to attempt to isolate the causes of, and to reduce, computer rejection of about one-fourth of all medical certification input because of omissions or procedural errors. There was little improvement in error rate through 1982. We are presently conducting special sessions and open-book tests for new AME's, lecturing to military flight surgeons and encouraging regional flight surgeons to review reports of physical examinations, from new and frequent-error AMEs. We conducted a special analysis of 1983 AME performance data to determine the relationships between errors and omissions and number of exams performed, recency and frequency of seminar attendance, and pilot or military flight surgeon experience. Errors were significantly reduced with recent and frequent seminar attendance, larger volume of exams, and pilot and military flight surgeon experience.

• Record URL:
  http://www.faa.gov/data_research/research/med_humanfacs/oamtechreports/1980s/media/am84-07.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Federal Aviation Administration

  Office of Aerospace Medicine, 800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20591
• Authors:
  • Dille, J R
  • Harris, J L
• Publication Date: 1984

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 9 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aviation medicine; Certification; Education and training; Errors; Medical examinations and tests; Medical personnel; Performance evaluations; Personnel performance
• Identifier Terms: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Education and Training; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00961804
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FAA-AM-84-7
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 9 2003 12:00AM