Welcome to ACOEM's Drug and Alcohol Testing and Medical Review Officer course. This is the first online offering of a program that we have been conducting live for more than 25 years. So you're a pioneer along with us. In this brief introduction and overview, I will cover seven items. First is to answer the burning question, are you in the right course? And will it allow you to become a certified MRO? Secondly, we'll talk about the components of the online learning program that's been developed for you, and I'll give you some tips on how to make maximal advantage. I'll introduce our faculty and also the 15 segments of this course, which are broken into smaller modules. I'll discuss the Medical Review Officer Certification Council and their certification examination. And finally, I'll introduce the self-assessment questions that you will be asked to complete at the end of each of these modules and give you some tips for thinking about them. So let's get back to the burning question, are you in the right course? This MRO training does meet what are called qualification training requirements for MROs that have been issued by both the USHHS, that is the Department of Health and Human Services, and DOT, the Department of Transportation. More importantly, it also meets the requirements of the Medical Review Officer Certification Council, which we call MROCC or even MROC, both for initial MRO certification and for recertification. So our online MRO training consists of several components. First are the pre-recorded presentations of which you're listening to the first one. We have 15 large segments, and then each of those has been broken down into smaller modules. And after completing each module, you'll be asked to complete a few self-assessment questions just to demonstrate that you understand and have mastered the material. You'll also be able to submit written questions to the faculty by sending them to ACOM, and we will provide written answers. Furthermore, there will be some live faculty sessions that will be scheduled during which you can ask questions and discuss other aspects of the training. And you'll be backed up by an extensive syllabus. There will also be a syllabus supplement and an even larger MRO resource manual. And these three are available in digital format, but you can get a printed syllabus if it's something that you'd like to have. As a registrant in this MRO course, you will log on to ACOM's learning management system. And when you do that, you'll need to identify yourself, and there'll be a display case which shows you which segments you've completed. You can take the video pre-recorded segments in any order, but we encourage you to do them in the order in which we've been recorded. And after each of these modules, you'll be asked to answer one to four self-assessment questions. I encourage you to participate in the discussions with faculty that will be scheduled periodically throughout this next course, as well as sending written questions to our faculty, which we will answer. And of course, you'll need to complete a course evaluation, which will help us improve this course, as well as allow you to receive a certificate of completion. If at any point you are stuck and need assistance, we refer you to Bernice Lagrimas, ACOM's seasoned educational staff member, and you see her email address, her direct mobile phone number, and her ACOM office number. Now let me introduce the three faculty members of this MRO program, Dr. Michael Peat, myself, and Dr. Donna Smith. As you see, we're scattered widely throughout the United States. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education requires disclosures of any conflict of interest, and our faculty have none. Our first faculty member is a delightful fellow with a wonderful British accent. Dr. Michael Peat is a forensic toxicologist and also an academician who's the editor-in-chief of a noted forensic sciences journal. He has operated drug testing laboratories in the past, worked in clinical laboratory settings, and was a senior officer for Quest Diagnostics, which also does drug testing. But he's not involved directly, so there's no conflict of interest. I am a recovering internal medicine specialist who first learned about occupational environmental medicine during two years of military service. I have my own little company in Charlottesville called Occupational Health Strategies, and we've had the good fortune to work with dozens of Fortune 500 companies. I'm also chief medical officer and medical review officer for Examinetics, which keeps my hand in drug testing. And I've been long active in AECOM, including serving as a past president. Our third faculty member, Donna Smith, we sometimes jokingly called Dr. Doctor because she has two doctoral degrees. After a career in clinical psychology, Donna moved to Washington, where she worked both in the Department of Defense and was later brought over to the Department of Transportation, where working in the Office of the Secretary, she was a key person in writing the DOT drug testing and later alcohol testing rules. Donna then moved to Florida. She worked for a number of substance abuse management companies and is now an independent consultant. Your MRO course is divided into 15 large segments, and here you see the first five on this page. We'll begin with a review of what I call the MRO basics to get everyone on the same page and understanding key concepts and terminology. We will then look at the nature of the problem of substance use, substance misuse, and abuse, both in the U.S. and in the workplace. And Dr. Smith will talk about the substance abuse professional or SAP role, which was created by the Department of Transportation during the drug testing era. We will then move into the heart of drug testing and the MRO role, and we'll begin with a review of the detailed procedures and forms that accompany the collection of urine specimens. We'll then take that bottle of urine into a forensic laboratory and go through the laboratory testing process. And Dr. Pete will review the toxicology of the major drugs that are covered under drug testing. Then Dr. Smith will have a detailed review of the Department of Transportation drug and alcohol testing rules, which provide really a gold standard for drug testing in this country. And then I will give a long presentation in five segments on how to be an effective MRO. After we've thoroughly reviewed urine drug testing, we will move into other types of drug testing, starting with alcohol, which is done either using breath or saliva. Then we'll talk about what is sometimes called alternative specimens, namely alternatives to urine, specifically the use, testing of oral fluids and hair. I will give an overview of some of the business aspects of setting up your own practice and working as an MRO and some of the legal issues and insurance issues you may have to address. And we will close out our course by talking about resources that are available to you and how to keep up to date. I suspect that most of you are taking this MRO training in order to qualify for MRO certification. One of the key certifying bodies is the Medical Review Officer Certification Council, which was initially fostered by ACOM, and founding organizations included the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Medical Association. Early MRO certification was totally a voluntary process, and thousands of MROs chose to become certified to demonstrate their competence. However, some states, such as Florida, then the Department of Transportation, and later the Department of Health and Human Services, recognized the value of having MROs who were trained and certified, and so they now require qualification training and certification in order to work with those agencies. Initially, all the training and the certification exams were performed live and in person. However, now we have online training and we have online examination for initial and recertification. So how can you get the most out of this course and be best prepared for the MRO certification exam? Well, of course, the first place is to listen carefully to each of our presentations. Sometimes we will reference what I call additional materials that are contained in the syllabus, and if we're presenting it, and if it's in the syllabus, I would say it's important to understand and much of it to remember. So I would study your syllabus. It includes all of our presentation slides, but it also includes additional documents that we really consider essential for an MRO. In addition, as I said, there is a supplement to the syllabus, which includes slightly less valuable material, and finally, a longer resource manual, which includes a lot of the history of writing and experience of earlier MROs and gives you a real flavor for how this field has developed. I would encourage you to pay attention to the self-assessment questions and answers. You're not going to be graded, but these questions will really probe your thinking, seeing if you really understand the material and can apply it in real life situations. And finally, if you have questions or are uncertain, you can write questions and send them to ACOM, and you can raise them at the live faculty sessions. At the end of each module, you'll be asked to answer one to four self-assessment questions, and I just want to spend a few moments going through this process with you. As you see, the self-assessment questions will cover every aspect of this course. Answering the self-assessment questions will not only help you to prepare for the certification exam by getting familiar with a multiple-choice question format, but it'll also build confidence and help you know that you are mastering this sometimes complex material. You can expect one to three and occasionally four questions after each module. A few of the questions will be true-false questions. Most of them will have a single correct answer, so you'll need to exclude the distractors, which are wrong, and boil down your answers to the one that best answers the question. And sometimes you'll see multiple-choice questions where there are more than one correct answers, and in those cases, it will be clearly specified. You'll find many of the self-assessment questions challenging, so if you have trouble answering a question, this is a good time to go back and read that section of the syllabus. Usually you will find the way to answer it there. It may also be helpful to go back and review the faculty presentations on that subject. But if you're still puzzled and you aren't sure why a different question isn't also right, you can write down your specific questions and we will receive them and we will respond to you, or save your questions for our discussions at the live faculty forums which will be scheduled. So now I just want to review the first and the only self-assessment question that I'm going to be going over during this course. So here's the first sample question. This course meets the MRO qualification training requirements of both DHHS and DOT. So is this true or is this false? And I think you know the answer is true. I mentioned that at the beginning. This will qualify you not only for the training requirements, but also to be able to take the certification examination.

ACOEM

Drug and Alcohol Testing

Medical Review Officer course

online offering

certified MRO