While many state boards have approved continuing education seminars for certified relicensure hours in thermography, as well as approving board certification programs, I feel that state mandated regulations should be implemented to insure quality control of the procedure. This would not necessarily require separate and fiscal intensive new boards, but could be made the responsibility of existing licensure boards. A major factor in the inconsistency of published works in the thermographic imaging field is the various protocols under which the procedure is performed. Although not difficult, the protocol of the examination, as with x-ray or any other diagnostic device is essential to accurate and reliable study. When I taught the diplomate program in California for thermography, physicians were asked to submit thermographic studies for review.
Protocol is everything.
Without an established protocol, no comparison of accuracy, double blinded study or evaluation of the procedure and its effectiveness can be made. An additional and very important factor in the current status of thermography has been its role in personal injury and workers' compensation litigation. As a test of neurophysiology, thermography is unparalleled in its reliability to detect spinal trauma, nerve injury, muscle imbalance and a myriad of other conditions such as the controversial reflex sympathetic dysfunction associated with permanent trauma. Using so-called experts, they picked the procedure apart based on poor studies, innuendo, material out of context, and ripped apart the testimony and diagnosis of unsophisticated and untrained physicians who used the procedure strictly as a means to more practice income. It is ironic that thermography as a diagnostic tool was so potentially lethal to the auto insurance industry that its diagnostic significance was so easily disregarded due to the damaging effect of deep pockets awards to injury victims.