Authorized User-Eligible (AU-E) Designations

Prepared by: Sophia R. O’Brien, MD and Austin R. Pantel, MD, MSTR University of Pennsylvania

The American Board of Radiology will no longer include Authorized User-Eligible (AU-E) designations on ABR certificates issued after December 31, 2023.1

How does this change our record keeping and document submission on behalf of our residents applying for Authorized User (AU) status from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)?

  • Previously, program directors would attest to satisfactory completion of the classroom and work requirements for a trainee to be an AU-E with a form submitted to the ABR.2 Applicants then had AU-E status listed on their ABR certification.
  • Previously, to complete the attestation of residents’ training and experience on the NRC AU Application Form 313A,3 program directors could submit a copy of the trainee’s ABR board certification which listed their AU-E status.
  • Now, program directors will need to fill out Part 1 Section 3 on the NRC AU Application Form 313A listing the location, hours, and dates of trainee’s classroom/laboratory training and supervised work experiences.
    • The location should simply be listed as the trainee’s institution.
    • The dates listed should be the trainee’s dates of residency training.
    • The clock hours for classroom and work experiences can be pulled from the trainee’s required didactics and rotation experiences, respectively.
  • The required training has not changed.

Old Process (No longer in use)

 New Process for ABR Graduates after 12/31/23

Candidate requirements:

  • 700 hours of training and experience in basic radionuclide handling technique and radiation safety*
  • Within the 700 hours, 80 hours must be classroom and laboratory training**
  • I-131 Therapy (3 high dose and 3 low dose therapies)
  • AU application submitted within 7 years of the above training

 Candidate requirements (unchanged):

  • 700 hours of training and experience in basic radionuclide handling technique and radiation safety*
  • Within the 700 hours, 80 hours must be classroom and laboratory training**
  • I-131 Therapy (3 high dose and 3 low dose therapies)
  • AU application submitted within 7 years of the above training

Submitted documents to the NRC;

  • AU Training Attestation Form 313A3
  • To complete Part 1 of Form 313A3, program directors could submit a copy of the trainee’s ABR board certification in section 1
  • Trainees I-131 Case log (3 high dose and 3 low dose therapies)

 Submitted documents to the NRC;

  • AU Training Attestation Form 313A3
  • To complete Part 1 of Form 313A3, program directors must complete section 3 listing the location, hours, and dates of required classroom and work experience
  • Trainees I-131 Case log (3 high dose and 3 low dose therapies)

 

*More details about the specific required hours and topics of this training are unchanged from prior and can be found on the NRC.gov site4

**Classroom and laboratory training are required in the following areas:

  1. Radiation physics and instrumentation
  2. Radiation protection
  3. Mathematics pertaining to the use and measurement of radioactivity
  4. Chemistry of byproduct material for medical use
  5. Radiation biology

Program directors explicitly attested to the above information to the ABR up until now, so programs should currently have a method for assessing and storing this information. If not, now is the time to develop a record-keeping system for AU training and to ensure that our training programs fully meet requirements.

 

 

References

 

  1. https://www.theabr.org/blogs/authorized-user-eligibility-webinar-recording-and-faqs-available
  2. https://www.theabr.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DR-AU-E-Form-AB.pdf
  3. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1216/ML12164A733.pdf
  4. https://www.nrc.gov/materials/miau/med-use-toolkit/auth-individuals.html