News: New MR Safety Certification Focuses on Radiologists, Technologists, and Physicists

The American Board of Magnetic Resonance Safety (ABMRS) is built around the central principal that professionals trained in MR safety represent the single greatest opportunity to reduce accidents and injuries in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) environment. The ABMRS was formed in 2014 and publicly announced its Board of Directors in January 2015.

While existing licensing and accreditation bodies focus on an enterprise’s operation and equipment related to MR, ABMRS founder and chairperson, Emanuel Kanal, MD, believes that those responsible for MR safety have been overlooked in those processes.

“This causes two problems,” offered Kanal. “First, there are no defined standards for what MR safety knowledge a person responsible for MR patients’ well-being is supposed to have mastered. Second, we cannot differentiate a truly knowledgeable MR medical director or MR safety officer from one with no MR safety background, training, or experience.”

The mission of ABMRS is to test and credential individuals for MRI safety knowledge and their ability to apply it. The organization will offer a Magnetic Resonance Safety Certified™ (MRSC™) credential for three distinct positions, medical director/physician (MRMD), safety officer (MRSO), and safety expert (MRSE).

Several international bodies, including the ABMRS, have collaborated to determine the criteria for the general roles and responsibilities for each of the three positions. An article describing each role and its responsibilities will be published soon.

The ABMRS is dedicated to achieving true international consensus on all its activities. International representation between the ABMRS and several international organizations has already been established, with others still in progress. “The ABMRS is the first step towards the creation of a truly international body for the credentialing of MR safety practitioners,” says Kanal. “We intend to develop a system which, apart from some unique legal or other requirements, should be immediately implementable in MR installations throughout the world.”

Examinations for the MRMD and MRSO credentials will be ready for administration as early as June 2015, with the MRSE examination expected to be finalized later in the year.

In the near future, the ABMRS will release the MRMD and MRSO Exam Content Syllabus, which will identify the subject matter on which the various examinations will be based. “Our intention is to be as transparent as possible,” offered Kanal. “We want individuals to be able to prepare for the test on their own, or for educators to be able to develop preparatory materials or courses. We want this information in everyone’s hands to try to increase MR safety awareness and educational opportunities throughout the industry.”

The examinations will test basic MR safety knowledge and especially the ability to apply it. “The MRMD and MRSO examinations will lean more toward testing the practical implementation of basic MR safety knowledge,” says Kanal. “Volumes of technical knowledge are not that useful if the practitioner doesn’t know how to apply them to real world situations.”

“Those who do pass their credentialing exam may then be identified as either MR physicians/medical directors, MR safety officers, or MR safety experts, followed by the initials MRSC™,” says Tobias Gilk, a member of the ABMRS Board of Directors. “And they’ll have earned the right to continue to use that title for 10 years following the successful completion of their exam.”

The MRMD credential is exclusive to physicians because of their fiduciary and legal duties to patients. Unlike other board certifications, however, the MRSC™ credential is unique in that does not define the training background of the MRMD or MRSE. Although the majority of those who will pursue MRSO and MRSE credentials certification will likely be technologists and physicists respectively, successful certification in these job positions/titles can be obtained by individuals with other backgrounds as well.

“The magnetic resonance industry is now entering a new and long overdue era,” said Kanal. “That of prospectively defined lines of responsibility and formal certification for those professionals whose job it is to ensure safety in the MR environments.”

Additional information regarding the ABMRS and the certification examinations is available on the organization’s website, www.ABMRS.org.