Principal Medical Officer (PMO), Dr Michael Drane has taken some well-earned leave this month and I have been acting as PMO in his stead.
If you have any issues you wish to discuss, please remember you can email dame.liaison@casa.gov.au or call the DAME Liaison line on (02) 6217 1170. If you need to specifically speak with one of the Senior Medical Officers, one of us can call you back if we can't speak to you right away. Remember to send through the applicant's Aviation Reference Number (ARN) so we can pull up their file in advance.
Lastly, just a reminder to everyone that the Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ASAM) conference will be held next month. Visit the ASAM website for more information.
Payments for Class 2 medicals should be made by the applicant at your surgery at the time of their medical appointment. For DAMEs who are not DAME2, payment for the medical is required before the examination can be submitted to CASA. This can be completed by the applicant either at the end of the examination with the DAME, or by the receptionist if they have access to MRS. Neither the medical practice nor CASA retains any credit card or payment details, as payment is made through a secure portal.
If you are a DAME2, payment of the CASA fee is only required if you cannot issue the medical in your office and it is required to be submitted to CASA for assessment.
If you are a DAME2, you no longer need to request the applicant's medical background report (Form Q02) from Av Med. The applicant completes all their medical history in MRS when they begin the medical application.
DAMEs with a DAME2 delegation can assess Class 2 medicals and issue the medical certificates provided the applicant doesn't have any safety significant medical conditions.
If you are interested in becoming a DAME2, please contact Av Med at dame.liaison@casa.gov.au and we can schedule the appropriate DAME2 training. If you have undertaken the Australian Certificate of Civil Aviation Medicine (ACCAM) provided by Monash University or the RAAF Aviation Medical Officer (AVMO) training in the last four years, you should not require additional training, but will need to meet specific requirements. Further information is available on the, becoming a DAME, roles and responsibilities page.
To retrieve a medical that's not already in your account, click on the 'Find Applicant' tab in MRS, enter the applicant's ARN in the search field and click the 'Search' button. Check the status of the medical. If it says, 'Applicant submitted summary', click the 'Begin Exam' button and you can proceed with the medical. If the status says, 'With Applicant', then the applicant has not clicked the 'Submit Medical History' button. Please ask the applicant to use the link in the email sent from CASA to access the medical and submit the medical in MRS. Then you will be able to proceed with the examination.
If a medical is already in your account, you can use the Filter search to retrieve the medical. Enter the ARN or applicant name in the relevant fields at the top of the screen. If these fields are not visible, click the 'Filter' icon.
We are aware of a bug in MRS where sometimes you will receive notification of a secure message, even though you have already actioned it. We apologise for the inconvenience and the IT team are working on a fix.
If an applicant has had a skin cancer removed within the last 12 months, please submit the pathology report to CASA with the medical.
To date, about 30% of DAMEs have responded to the 'Learning more about MRS' survey. 36 DAMEs have indicated interest in a webinar, 109 DAMEs have indicated interest in the active learning software and 114 DAMEs have indicated an interested in both.
The most popular topic for training is Problem mapping/SNOMED.
The survey closes on Thursday 25 August 2016. More on the survey results will be included in the next DAME Newsletter.