ARRT UPDATES OUR BONE DENSITOMETRY DOCUMENTS

If your program teaches bone densitometry (BD), be aware that several of our documents will change on July 1, 2022.

• BD Examination Content Specifications (effective July 1, 2022): If candidates take our exam after June 30, 2022, the exam will reflect these content specifications.
• BD Clinical Experience Requirements (effective July 1, 2022):
  • If candidates start their clinical experience requirements before July 1, 2022, they have 24 months to complete them, and they can continue using our previous clinical experience requirements.
  • If candidates start logging clinical experience requirements after July 1, they must follow the new requirements.
  • If candidates started logging procedures using the older requirements, but want to switch to the new ones:
    • They should delete the old worksheet.
    • Then select the discipline to start a new worksheet.
    • Note: Procedures won’t transfer. (If candidates want to include previous procedures on the new document, they’ll need to re-enter them, and a verifier will have to review and verify them again.)

Content Specifications

The major changes to our BD content specifications are that:

• In the Patient Care section, we added information on technologist ergonomics and infection control.
• In the Image Production section, we added information on software errors and upgrades.
• In the Procedures section, we added information on:
  • Vertebral exclusions under lumbar spine
  • Forearm length under forearm

Clinical Experience Requirements

The major changes to our BD clinical experience requirements are that:

• We clarified that both mandatory and elective procedures can’t be counted for the same patient on the same day.
• We added a new elective procedure: perform and analyze vertebral fracture assessment (VFA) scan using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) equipment with five repetitions.

The number of different elective procedures we require remains at three.

With the help of the professional community, we review our discipline documents every five years to ensure our exams and clinical requirements remain comprehensive, accurate, and fair. 

Questions

If you have questions, call 651.687.0048 and select the option for program directors.