There are more than 700 DAMEs spread throughout Australia and overseas and includes the medical staff of the CASA Office of Aviation Medicine.
The role of a DAME is detailed on our role of a DAME page.
The medical officers at CASA review the information received from the DAMEs and make a regulatory decision as to whether, on the evidence available, an applicant is entitled to the issue of a medical certificate under Part 67 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1988.
The CASA medical certification system also utilizes the opinions of a wide variety of clinical medical specialists such as psychiatrists, neurologists, and cardiologists.
CASA's aeromedical decision making is both collegial and evidence based.
The collegial aspect of the process involves using more than one medical officer in the consideration of complex cases.
Those medical officers seek to achieve consensus with respect to the final conclusion, through a process called Complex Case Management (CCM).
CCM consists of peer review of complex cases, with each doctor annotating his/her comments. These are then discussed at a special meeting convened for this purpose. This process is intended to ensure consistent outcomes, provide a degree of internal peer review and focus a high level of aviation medical expertise onto the case.
The evidence based aspect of the process ensures that, wherever possible and appropriate, the relevant medical and scientific research literature is searched, reviewed and applied to the considerations of the case.
In assessing the evidence in support of any decision making, CASA uses the hierarchy of evidence provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which largely mirrors the hierarchies of many other bodies internationally.