REGULATED PROFESSION - PROGRESS UPDATE

This fall, continued progress was made towards regulating the profession of Medical Physics.  Below, you'll find summaries of two important meetings which were attending by our current AMPA president, Dr. Joel St. Aubin.

Meeting with Health Professions Unit – September 16, 2016
 
Dr. Joel St-Aubin – President AMPA
Dr. Dave Kinniburgh – President AACLDS
Mr. Andrew Douglas – Director, Health Professions Unit
Mr. Shawn Knight – Executive Director, Human Health Resources & Strategy Branch
 
The purpose of this meeting was to get an update from the government as to the status of the regulated profession application submitted jointly from AMPA and AACLDS, and to meet the new Director of the Health Professions Unit, Andrew Douglas. The government had recently finished opening the Health Professions Act (HPA) to include physician assistants as a regulated profession within the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA). The Health Professions Unit is hoping to re-open the HPA again in the fall of 2017 to make some other changes to the act. Shawn Knight and Andrew Douglas identified the purpose of opening the HPA was specifically to make revisions to the act itself. They also identified this time as the perfect opportunity for professions such as Medical Physics (MP) and Clinical Laboratory Doctoral Scientists (CLDS) to be added to the HPA. Despite the fact that both Shawn Knight and Andrew Douglas admitted that a fall 2017 timeline was ambitious, they both believed that AMPA and AACLDS should work towards being prepared for this timeline. During this meeting, both Andrew and Shawn provided their belief that MP and CLDS inclusion into the HPA, which requires approval from the Legislature, would not be an issue as we are both science based professions.  However, before they begin any work on our application, they were clear that an official endorsement from the CSPA was required to ensure MPs and CLDSs have the administrative support for regulation. Overall, this meeting was very positive and both Shawn and Andrew were very supportive of our application.
 

​Meeting with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta – November 1, 2016
 
Dr. Joel St-Aubin – President AMPA
Dr. Dave Kinniburgh – President AACLDS
Dr. Trevor Theman – Registrar CPSA
Dr. Susan Ulan –Assistant Registrar, Registrations CPSA
 
Based on the discussion from the Health Professions Unit, the presidents of AMPA and AACLDS scheduled a meeting with the Registrar and Assistant Registrar in charge of registrations with the CPSA. The main focus of this meeting was to discuss the timelines and requirements for the CPSA to provide the health professions unit with an official letter of support for MP and CLDS regulation, and their desire to be the governing college our these professions. Drs. Theman and Ulan were both very supportive of the AMPA and AACLDS joint application for regulation, and promised that the official letter of endorsement from the CPSA to the health professions unit would be tabled in the next CPSA council meeting in December 2016. Dr. Theman had mentioned that he thought there would be no issues in providing an official endorsement after the council meeting. Due to the short timelines (proposed opening of the HPA in fall of 2017), it was recommended that AMPA and AACLDS move forward on certain preparations. AMPA, AACLDS and the CPSA agreed to meet again early in the new year to review progress towards the regulation of MP and CLDS. Three specific tasks were identified as essential, and are to be completed by this meeting in early 2017. Namely,

1. Identification of protected titles (schedule 21, section (1) of the HPA);
2. Development (or definition?) of  practice statements for MP and CLDS (in accordance with what is done in schedule 21, section (3) of the HPA);
3. A full registry of all qualified medical physicists and clinical laboratory doctoral scientists working in Alberta.

In addition to these two requirements for the addition of MP and CLDS into the HPA, the CPSA also recommended that AMPA and AACLDS begin work on details regarding the regulations including:

1. Specifying restricted activities;
2. Describing a registrations process;
   1. Initial membership: All CLDSs currently working in an accredited facility, and all qualified MPs will be eligible for HPA regulation, as a one-time opportunity when the professions are regulated.
   2. Standard route: What education, training and credentials will be recognized.
   3. Substantial equivalency: A process for evaluating individuals who do not have the standard education, training or credentials, but possess other credentials that may be deemed to be substantially equivalent to the outlined standards.
3. Continuing competence and professional development;
4. Professional conduct;
   1. Complaint process.

The suggestion was for AMPA and AACLDS to review the current CPSA regulations, along with their code of ethics and standards of practice and mark changes / alterations that would be required to include the MP and CLDS into the existing regulation framework. The meeting with representatives of the CPSA was very encouraging.