President’s Corner 2nd Quarter Issue 2025
An Opportunity of a Lifetime
Last quarter, I wrote about legislative actions regarding medical certification and personal strategies for maintaining your medical certificate. The bottom-line message was that you should pre-flight your medical application and AME visit as you would your aircraft. Knowing what is required by reading the Guide for AMEs, bringing the appropriate documentation to the exam and completing the MedXPress form correctly are key. I want to follow up on the legislative action with some very good news.
The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 has two very significant provisions, Section 411 and 413, that give a rare opportunity to modernize the medical certification system. Section 411 states “the Administrator shall establish a working group to review the medical processes, policies and procedures of the Administration and to make recommendations to the Administrator on modernizing such processes, policies and procedures to ensure timely and efficient certification of airmen”.
This section also establishes a requirement to form an Aviation Workforce Mental Health Task Group to oversee, monitor and evaluate efforts of the Administrator related to supporting the mental health of the aviation workforce. This Task Group will evaluate feedback from all aviation experts, including Part 121, 135 and 91 operations, guidance from ICAO, review progress recommended by the DOT IG report “FAA Conducts Comprehensive Evaluations of Pilots with Mental Health Challenges, but Opportunities Exist to further mitigate Safety Risks” and recommendations from the FAA Aviation Rulemaking Committee on Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances report.
Section 413 of the Act establishes a Medical Portal Modernization Task Group to evaluate the user interface and information-sharing capabilities of an online medical portal administered by the FAA.
The Task Groups are composed of over 70 AMEs, medical experts, pilots, advocacy organizations, international regulators and FAA physicians and personnel who have volunteered to contribute their time and expertise to one or more of the 75 sub-tasks resulting from this Act.
Dr. Susan Northrup and I co-chair the Work Group, and we have four leaders who manage each of the Task Groups, each with many sub-tasks. The organization and assignment of work for each sub-task was complex but started with weekly virtual meetings and a recent in-person meeting. The Task Group Leaders submit a monthly progress report. We will make periodic reports to Congress with our final report and recommendations due to Congress by 28 October 2028. In the interim, the Working Group and the FAA will seek to recommend and implement changes that are possible in the short-term with current funding and staffing levels.
Dr. Northrup is fully committed to optimizing policies and procedures as well as infrastructure that will make the certification system accessible, transparent, interactive and accountable for all involved. Policies will be formulated on individualized risk-based decision making rather than the current system of diagnosis-based certification decisions. To integrate into a safety culture, emphasis on education of airmen and AMEs regarding a preventive medicine philosophy to keep airmen healthy and flying longer is essential. AI tools for education, review of documentation, status updates, communications and certification decisions are possibilities to accelerate these improvements. Some changes have already been made, especially instructions for those completing a MedXPress application for the first time. Many more are to come.
Guidance to the Working Group is to imagine the ideal certification, education and communication processes for the future without the current constraints limiting us today. The goal is to have a healthier aviation workforce interacting with a streamlined and transparent certification system so that the safety of the national airspace is enhanced. Opportunities like this rarely come along. The Work Group is committed to taking full advantage of it. More good news will follow with the dedicated efforts of the Work Group members.
Fly Safely, Stay Healthy!
Quay
N321QS