Governance

AAPM materials and documents are to be reviewed and approved by their parent groups.  Once approved by their council, the material or document is submitted to EXCOM for approval.  The number of things requiring review and the length and detailed nature of many of them make it infeasible for EXCOM to do line-by-line review and copy editing.  Nonetheless, as part of the due diligence of the association, a type of high-level review is appropriate before these materials are considered approved by AAPM. 

EXCOM will use a strategy that consists of a high-level review of four primary concerns:  appropriateness, completeness of domain expert review, a field safeguard test, and an organizational safeguard test. 

1. “Appropriateness test” – Is this topic/document/recommendation appropriate to the interests of AAPM?
2. “Expert domain review test” – Have experts with domain-specific knowledge reviewed and approved this document?
3. “Field safeguard test” – Is this document/topic/issue going to appropriately safeguard the field of medical physics, either through advancement of the science of medical physics or the professional practice of medical physics?  If it contains guidelines, are they consistent with the professional advancement and recognition of medical physicists and the scope of practice of medical physics?
4. “Organizational safeguard test” – If this document/topic/issue is controversial or if it presents risk to AAPM as an organization (e.g., strategic, financial, compliance, operational, reputational), have those risks been sufficiently considered and mitigated, where possible? Where appropriate, have the interests of other relevant organizations with whom AAPM has relationships been considered?