Accessibility and transparency in the FAA medical process which, hopefully, will lead to less frustration for pilots: Those are the major goals of the new FAA Federal Air Surgeon.
In “The Flight Path to Transparency” in the May/June 2021 FAA Safety Briefing magazine, Dr. Susan Northrup said she has heard “loud and clear” that it takes too long when an FAA review is necessary of a pilot’s medical. While 95% of pilots and air traffic controllers walk out of an AME’s office with their certificates in hand, the remaining 5% are frustrated with the lengthy process of trying to get a special issuance.
“To reduce this, we have increased overtime hours as needed and seek to hire additional personnel,” she wrote. “We are also working with advocacy groups to educate airmen/air traffic controllers on sending all the information needed (outlined in the AME Guide and/or a letter from the FAA) and only the information needed. Extraneous material and duplicative records slow everything down.”
She pointed out that more than 90% of the denials result from the failure to provide the requested information.
“Another major source of frustration is the inability of an individual to track the progress of their application package through the system,” she continued. “We are working to enable this tracking.”
She added they are also working on making it possible for the pilot or AME to upload documents directly into the pilot’s file.
“We made some progress in this area for the Human Intervention Motivation Study (HIMS) program, but it is labor intensive. Expanding these capabilities while protecting privacy and security is challenging, but worthwhile,” she added.
Also in the works: A reorganization of the FAA Aerospace Medicine website and AME Guide to make navigation more user friendly.
“We are expanding the frequently asked questions pages to reduce the need to call the help desk,” she said.
FAA officials also reviewed the form letters the agency routinely sends and rewrote 13 that “were thought to be the least friendly,” she said.
“We remain committed to the ‘pathway to yes,'” she added, noting the goal is to certify as many pilots and air traffic controllers “as we safely can, and to do so as quickly as feasible.”
Northrup received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a medical degree from The Ohio State University, as well as a master’s degree in public health from the University of Texas. She is double board certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Medicine. She is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and a former regional medical director for Delta Air Lines. She is also an active private pilot.
I have an implanted defibrillator which has never ‘fired’, not in 25 years. Still, that means an automatic medical disqualification, despite the fact that my interest has said that I would be a safer pilot than one who has no device in the event of an incident.
My main problem each year to provide information that qualifies me to continue is the requirements are never to the point and I have had to collect numerous conflicting requirements, extra doctors appointments that they usually did not understand or agree with.
The last two years has been much easier but is still too time and cost consuming. I am very conservative in my operations and self ground myself anytime needed for safety and will always do that, it’s my safety and the public’s safety that I am always cognizant of. Glen Pruet