New Voluntary RPVI Certificate Recognizes Interpretive Expertise

By Kerri Wachter

NEW YORK -- The new Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation certificate is intended to document the expertise required by physicians to interpret vascular ultrasound studies and to make diagnoses based on study results, according to Dr. R. Eugene Zierler, who helped develop this credential.

The Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation (RPVI) certificate provides an alternative to the Registered Vascular Technologist (RVT) certificate. Both credentials are offered through the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS). The RVT certificate evaluates the skills and knowledge required to perform vascular ultrasound examinations but does not test the interpretive or diagnostic skills used by a physician in the vascular laboratory, said Dr. Zierler at the Veith symposium on vascular medicine sponsored by the Cleveland Clinic.

The single exam takes 4 hours and is offered at Promissor Testing Centers. The computer-based, approximately 200-question exam is multiple-choice and involves images and video clips. The exam is "not based on the opinions of the committee, but rather on the results of a task survey which assessed what vascular laboratories actually do," said Dr. Zierler, a professor of surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle. The exam costs $500. A pilot version of the exam was taken by about 60 applicants in 2005 with an overall pass rate of 95%. The exam was made available to all qualified physicians in January 2006.

The exam covers eight topics: instrumentation and ultrasound physics (12%-18% of questions), extracranial cerebrovascular (22%-28%), intracranial cerebrovascular (1%-4%), upper and lower extremity peripheral venous (17%-23%), upper and lower peripheral arterial including physiologic testing and duplex imaging (12%-18%), visceral vascular (7%-13%), special testing (5%-11%), and quality assurance and ultrasound safety (2%-8%).

"I should emphasize that the RPVI certificate will remain voluntary, unless it becomes linked in some way to reimbursement, licensing, or accreditation," said Dr. Zierler.