Volunteers
Coming soon
Committee Description and Charge
The ACR Musculoskeletal Certification Program Oversight Committee shall have responsibility for the organization and implementation of the ACR Musculoskeletal Certification Program. The Committee shall:
- Develop, implement, and monitor program eligibility requirements
- Develop and implement certification policies and procedures
- Review and approve all examination items
- Develop and implement standards for recertification
- Review domains and tasks annually to ensure relevance/accuracy
- Review testing data and make recommendations for research studies
The Committee shall also select and appoint members of the Examination-Item Development Group, Examination Assembly and Review Group, Examination-Criterion Group, Job Analysis Group, and other groups and sub-committees as the Committee deems necessary or appropriate to carry out its objectives. All such appointments shall be subject to the approval of the Board of Directors or Executive Committee and Executive Vice President.
Committee Member Time Commitments
- Participate in webinars, conference calls, and emails as needed
- 30–50 hours on outside work
- The committee does a fair amount of time-sensitive work via email, requiring that members be extremely responsive and able to work under short timeframes
Committee Eligibility Criteria Including Special Positions
The ACR Musculoskeletal Certification Program Oversight Committee will consist of five (5) members plus the Director, Certification, who will serve ex officio as a nonvoting member.
Initial appointments of Oversight Committee members are made by the ACR Board of Directors, as follows: One member will be appointed as Chair of the Oversight Committee; one member will be appointed as Chair of the Examination Group(s); two members will be appointed as at-large appointees, and the fifth member will be appointed as a representative of the public.
The term of office for Oversight Committee members will be four (4) years and staggered, with the opportunity to be re-appointed for one additional term.
The following expectations pertain to the nomination and appointment of all members of the Oversight Committee:
- All members of the Oversight Committee must strongly support the vision of the certification program and be committed to ensuring its successful implementation.
- Membership on the Oversight Committee is volunteer based.
- All appropriate stakeholders should be involved – candidates, certificants, patients, and the public, with due consideration to gender and all other facets of diversity, to the fullest extent possible.
- All members must sign a confidentiality agreement committing to strict confidence and not to use or disclose any confidential information.
- Five or more years as an educator or direct supervisor (does not apply to public member).
The following expectations pertain to the nomination and appointment of the public member of the Oversight Committee:
- The public member represents the direct and indirect users of certificants’ skills and/or services. Because this may be defined broadly, a rotating system for representation of various publics may be implemented over time.
- The public member may be a professional, but should not have similar credentials to certificants.
- The public member may be or have been a potential consumer of the certificants’ skills or services.
- The public member should also have experience with public advocacy.
Committee Member Conflict of Interest Policies
Members of the Oversight Committee have fiduciary responsibility for the certification of qualified individuals who meet its standards related to the performance of musculoskeletal ultrasound in their practice of rheumatology. The primary obligations are to stakeholders (e.g., patients, employers). In order for Oversight Committee members to ensure their decisions uphold these obligations, all Oversight Committee members will abide by the following requirements concerning conflict of Interest:
- Members whose primary employment is in commercial entities or health care insurance companies are not eligible to serve on the Oversight Committee.
- Members of the Oversight Committee must be free of conflict of interest relevant to the subject matter throughout the length of their term and for 12 months following the end of their term.
- Members of the Oversight Committee cannot serve as course directors or planning committee members for any CME granting musculoskeletal ultrasound instructional courses including ACR courses throughout the length of their term and for 12 months following the end of their term.*
- Members of any entity that provides training that fulfills RhMSUS Program eligibility criteria cannot serve on the Oversight Committee.
- Members cannot serve as members of the ACR Committee on Education or the ACR Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Planning Committee throughout the length of their term and for 12 months following the end of their term.
*The Chair of the Examination Group(s) cannot serve as faculty for any musculoskeletal ultrasound instructional course including CME and non-CME courses and ACR courses throughout the length of their term and for 12 months following the end of their term.
The Examination Group(s) will carry out the review and approval of all examination items on behalf of the Oversight Committee. Except for the Chair of the Examination Groups, members of the Oversight Committee shall not review the examination in its entirety or any individual questions unless their opinion regarding an individual question is specifically requested by the psychometric consultant, other committee leaders within RhMSUS, the ACR staff member for RhMSUS or the ACR board.