Liana Watson RT, RDMS (ASRT) summarized recent activities of the ASRT House of Delegates, which has adopted an ASRT "Standards of Practice," which Is a slightly updated version of the Standards written in 1995 by Ann Obgerfeld, JD RT, and presented to the Sonography Coalition in 1997 as a potential Standards "template." She stated that it had been the policy of the ASRT Practice Standards Committee to create Standards for each specialty, using identical formats, with general criteria and then specialty specific criteria. She stated that the ASRT initially was looking to the Coalition to define the specific criteria areas for the ultrasound Standards. She also stated that ASRT believes it had worked hard to get the members of the ultrasound community to work on these Standards for Ultrasound, including formation of an Independent Practice Council (IPC) to oversee the standards of practice documents. However, the IPC did not materialize due to lack of support by the professional ultrasound organizations. One reason the organizations had resisted is that under this organizational arrangement, ASRT would hold the copyright and essentially "own" the ultrasound practice standards, despite participation by the other ultrasound organizations.

When asked why the ASRT had found it necessary to adopt Ultrasound Practice Standards at all, given the facts that for nearly two years she had been a collaborative participant in the development of Standards by the Coalition, and that we were within weeks of producing a final document, she stated that the Council believed that it was acting in the best interest of the ASRT members and the public. She took no responsibility for what transpired at the ASRT annual meeting.

I stated, for the record, that I believed the ASRT made a conscious decision to adopt a separate set of Standards following the March, 1999, meeting, at which time it was made clear that the Coalition would retain the copyright and ownership of the documents and distribute them to the sponsoring organizations. I further stated that I believed when the ASRT realized that it could not publish this information as its own, it decided to abandon the project, undermine the Coalition, and do what was best for the ASRT. In doing so, it rejected the professional ultrasound community, breached the trust that had been built, and created a serious rift that will be very difficult to repair. The public has not been well served, because there will now be two, similar but competing documents, with fundamental differences, and no true "standards of practice" representing the unified voice of the professional ultrasound community. My comments were supported and reiterated by others. All of the participants were frustrated by the ASRT, dismayed that one of our colleagues would take this action, and concerned over the long-term ramifications.

A variety of corrective actions were suggested, including sanctioning of ASRT and resignation of ASRT from the Coalition. Because there was not a quorum present and due to the serious nature of this matter, it was decided that additional comments should be sought from the absent members.

Kevin Evans, RDMS (SDMS), presented the final version of the Accredition Information sheet. This brief document was created so that staff members of ultrasound and related organizations could provide correct information about facility accreditation. Kevin completed a survey of the most frequently asked questions about accreditation, and forwarded it to the organizations offering ultrasound accreditation. Using their responses, he created a two page summary. Unfortunately, the AIUM and ACR accreditation issues were not addressed due to their failure to provide Kevin with any information. This document is available from the Coalition and should be a useful tool.

Don Haydon (Executive Director, SDMS) was asked to provide a summary on the status of the Federal Minimum Standards legislation. Don reported that SDMS and ASE had recently surveyed their membership and found overwhelming support for some type of minimum standards to practice ultrasound. 47% of the members favored SDMS sponsorship of an independent FMS bill compared with seeking modification to the current ASRT bill, which currently excludes ultrasound. Liana Watson of ASRT reported that the ASRT Alliance voted to amend the previous version of this FMS bill to exclude ultrasound and to formally introduce the bill during this legislative season. Representative Rich Lazzio of New York will sponsor the bill. It will then go to a subcommittee (presumably of the Commerce Committee) for review and possible revisions. Liana stated that all changes will be posted on the ASRT website. Several members commented that the content would need constant oversight to assure us that the ultrasound exclusions were maintained. Updates on this and other bills can be found on the Library of Congress (LOC) website(www.thomas.loc.gov). Once the bill is assigned a number, it can be identified and followed through this site.

Next, there was considerable discussion on the future of the Sonography Coalition. Given the length and nature of the agenda, it was decided that Diane Kawamura, PhD, RDMS (ARDMS; Ex-Officio) and Cris Davis, RDCS (chair) would rework the bylaws and circulate the revisions to the Coalition members 30-45 days prior to the next meeting in San Francisco (AIUM). Several issues were addressed during this discussion of the role of the Coalition:

1. Which professional organizations should be invited to participate?
2. Does the Coalition meet a specific need, or is it redundant?
3. What is the primary role (mission) of the Coalition?
4. Should the Coalition have a constitution and bylaws?
5. How will the Coalition be funded? Should there be a "management fee" for each supporting organization?
6. Should the Code of Ethics be revised and published? Should it be a component of the Scope and Standards?
7. What constitutes a quorum?
8. Should representatives be formally appointed? For what length of term?
9. Which organizations should be voting members and ex-officio members?

The meeting was attended by the following representatives: Cris Davis, RDCS (Chair), Peggy Knoll, RDCS (ASE), Kevin Evans, RDMS (SDMS), Liana Watson RT, RDMS (ASRT),and Anne Jones, RN, RVT (SVT); Diane Kawamura, PhD, RDMS (ARDMS; Ex-Officio), Donald Haydon, Executive Director and Laura Logan (SDMS-observer), and Katie Kuntz, RDMS, and Cheryl Reid, MD (JRC-DMS; Ex-Officio). Not present WERE Larry Waldroup, RDMS (AIUM), Fran Buhr, RDMS (CSDMS), and Deborah Levine, MD (ACR).