July 2008

News of the Vascular Profession

ARDMS to Introduce New Sonography Principles and Instrumentation (SPI) Exam in 2009

In spring 2009 the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) will introduce its new Sonography Principles and Instrumentation (SPI) examination. The SPI examination will meet the fundamental physics principles and instrumentation requirements for the RDMS, RDCS, and RVT credentials. Recently, ARDMS accepted responses from ARDMS registrants interested in participating in the SPI Pilot Examination Screening Survey. However, the screening survey is now closed.

ARDMS points out that active registrants who hold the RDMS, RDCS, and/or RVT credentials do not need to take the SPI examination in order to maintain current credentials. For details on the SPI examination, please go to the ARDMS website at www.ardms.org.

Definition of “Allied Health” Finalized by a Federal Commission

A federal commission finally and definitively resolved the age-old question of defining what is “allied health.” The National Allied Health Definition Commission recently announced that “Allied health will be defined as including all health care practitioners except for physicians and nurses.”

In addition, the Commission decided that “Any patient spending more than 33 1/3 minutes per month (within any one federal fiscal year) to consult the Internet and/or post content in online forums and blogs related to that patient’s acute and/or chronic illness, injury, disease, or condition will be considered an allied health patient and accordingly subject to federal and state laws/regulations.

For additional information, go to http://tinyurl.com/33t3jb.