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PARCA Update
The number of PARCA
candidates that are becoming certified is steadily
increasing: our current count is close to 200 certified
professionals. The CIIP certification effort which is
provided by the ABII also continues to grow, and it
becomes more and more obvious that each of the
certifications are finding their own niche and area of
applications. For example, Bill Gregg, a PACS
administrator who is both PARCA (CPSA) and CIIP
certified, mentions in a recent post on the pacs admin user group that he
has every intention to complete the different PARCA
certifications. His thoughts are that the CIIP is very
broad based, while the PARCA exams are more specifically
related to the PACS issues we deal with on a daily
basis. Both are good and target different areas that can
be used to focus our education. He also mentions that he
feels that a lot of the benefit comes in organizing and
preparing for the tests. It is good to understand what
your strengths and weaknesses are.
 Several PARCA members have
expressed the need for additional resources with regard
to some of the more technical competency areas such as
two’s complement, gray-scale configuration, and
processor boards for PACS systems. There are several
good on-line resources available on these topics and
links have now been added to the list of “additional
on-line resources” on the Links page of the PARCA
website for your benefit.
One of the areas of
discussion is how long a certification should last and
what the process of renewal and/or continuous education
should be. Some of the fundamentals will not change over
decades, but new display technologies and hardware as
well as software changes occur frequently. As systems
become rapidly obsolete, your knowledge also becomes
obsolete. As of now, there are no short term plans in
place to create a continuing certification; however this
might change over the next several years. It will be in
lock-step with what other certification organizations
will be offering.
In conclusion, PACS
administrator certification is getting more mature,
there are now hundreds of certified professionals which
means that the level of knowledge is raised to a higher
level. I talked with vendors in the past about this
activity and you can imagine that most of them very
strongly support this: what better than to have an
informed and trained user on the other side of the
phone? In addition, certified professionals should be
able to serve their departments better and ultimately
provide better patient care. Last but not least, there
is no doubt in my mind that certification will enhance
the job growth opportunities for those candidates.
Website Updates
The PARCA website has been improved with several new member features: as a PARCA member you can now log in, update your profile and view your membership information. In addition, you can view detailed exam information.
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As a PARCA member, you are entitled to the following discounts:
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