Dear Clinical Measurement Professional,

As many of you know The Irish Institute of Clinical Measurement Science was established in 2003 with the aim of supporting and promoting our profession.  We represent all disciplines within Clinical Measurement including Neurophysiology, Cardiology, Respiratory, Vascular and GI Function.

We have been active in providing unified academic support to promote best practice among all Clinical Measurement professionals.  However we now have a new challenge facing us.

The Health and Social Care Professionals Act, 2005 stated it was;

To provide for the establishment of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council and of Registration Boards for certain designated health and social care professionals; to provide for the registration of persons qualifying to use the title of a designated profession and for the determination of complaints relating to their fitness to practice; and to provide for related matters.

The designated professions included as defined by section 4, subsection 1 (4-1) are:

clinical biochemist; dieticians; medical scientist; occupational therapist; orthoptist; physiotherapist; podiatrist; psychologist; radiographer; social care worker; social worker; speech and language therapist.

This act established a Health and Social Care Professionals Council with the objective of protecting the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training and competence among registrants of the designated professions. The act envisages that the council be responsible for the registration of 15,000 to 20,000 professionals across a range of health and social care professions.

On the 9^th of May 2008 the Department of Health and Children welcomed the announcement by the Health and Social Care Professionals’ Council of the appointment of Ginny Hanrahan as its first Chief Executive Officer.  As CEO she will be working with the council in devising and rolling out the state registration system for the 12 professional groups as stated above. She has the task of preparing and agreeing with the Council, detailed plans, on a profession by profession basis for the introduction of individual Registers, each of which will be overseen by dedicated Registration Boards, under the umbrella of the Council. She hopes to begin the roll out of initial registers before year’s end.

Section 4-2 of this Act also states; that the minister may designate additional health and social care professions once they meet certain conditions as defined in this section. Clinical Measurement Science falls under the definition of social and health care profession as defined by section 4-3.

The IICMS believe now is the time to start preparing for state registration. Why?

State registration ensures both the protection of the professional and the patient. State registration would allow us to standardise and regulate ourselves by setting our own standards by professionals working in our industry.  Working together we would achieve best practice and improved quality of services to our patients.  This in turns reflects positively on the status of our profession.

The IICMS has now been engaging in a massive effort to get details of all those working in clinical measurement science, be it part time/full time/contract or sabbatical.  This comprehensive draft register will ensure that all those working within our profession will receive updates of our progress and information regarding the establishment of a voluntary temporary register.  A voluntary temporary register will be composed of all those wishing to participate in state registration.

A registration committee (in co-operation with the) of IICMS called the Clinical Measurement Science Registration Board has been established.  This board is composed of representatives working in each of the disciplines, with a medical consultant.  Its function will be to co-ordinate the temporary register and define criteria necessary for registration for each discipline.  The IICMS has also decided to waive membership fees for this year, 2008, in an effort to encourage people to join both our organisation and join the temporary register.

This register will form the basis the permanent register (in a similar fashion to the RCCP in the UK).  

Drafting registration criteria for each discipline will be performed by professionals working in that discipline.  We have a representative/s from each discipline committed to formalising registration criteria only for the discipline in which they are specialised.

The route into clinical measurement has changed significantly in the past number of years from the MPPM (Technician Certificate in Medical Physics and Physiological Measurement) to now, the BSc in Clinical Measurement Science.  Up until recently professional competency examinations via UK based professional organisations was available to members working outside of the UK.  However this is no longer the case for Neurophysiology and Cardiology.  We now have people working together side by side in departments who have come into Clinical Measurement via different routes.  In terms of defining registration criteria we need to incorporate all these different routes.  The aim of moving forward with state registration is not to exclude, but include everyone! Applications for the temporary register will be processed on an individual to individual basis.  Please remember this process is in its infancy and the exact details to what constitutes registration has not yet been formalised.

If you have any further questions, queries or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us via - Click here to reveal email address (protected).   We endeavour to have updates and progress reports on our website often. We aim to produce a booklet with more information in the near future which we will circulate to all those on our contact list.

If you are working in clinical measurement and have not been aware of the draft please email you details to - Click here to reveal email address (protected) with your name, current position, hospital address, phone number and email (compulsory). 

As I stated before the process of state registration is nothing to be scared of.  It is a massive move forward in providing better protection for ourselves as professionals and most importantly for patient care.

I look forward to working on this process with all of you.

Kind Regards,

Jacinta Kearns

Chair, IICMS.

Monday, 01 September 2008.