Aeromedical Compass Has Expanded: Find the Right Aviation Medical Professional

Finding the right aviation medical professional should not require pilots to piece together recommendations from social media groups, old forum posts, word of mouth and scattered internet searches. Aeromedical Compass is being built to put that information in one place.

What began as an effort to bring greater transparency to pilot experiences with aviation medical professionals has expanded into something much larger: a centralized aviation medical directory designed to help pilots find, research and compare the professionals and programs involved in the aeromedical system.

And it is no longer limited to AMEs.

One Place to Search the Aviation Medical System

Aeromedical Compass is being developed as an all-provider aviation medical lookup tool.

Pilots can use it to search for professionals and resources including FAA AMEs, HIMS AMEs, aviation psychiatrists, psychologists, neuropsychologists and treatment programs. The directory is intended to continue growing as additional provider types and resources are identified.

That distinction matters. A pilot dealing with a complicated medical-certification issue may interact with several different professionals during the process. Finding an AME is only one part of that system. Until now, pilots have often had to search multiple disconnected sources to identify the people and programs involved.

Aeromedical Compass is intended to become the place pilots can begin that search.

A Directory First. Pilot Experience Data When It Exists.

There is an important distinction between being listed in the directory and having a pilot-experience profile.

A professional does not receive a positive or negative rating merely because Aeromedical Compass lists them. Directory information and pilot-reported experience data are treated separately.

When approved pilot experience reports exist, Aeromedical Compass can add an evidence-informed review profile alongside the underlying directory information. That gives pilots context that a conventional provider directory cannot provide.

More Than a Star Rating

Healthcare—and particularly aeromedical certification—is too consequential to reduce every experience to a single number without context.

Aeromedical Compass is designed to examine structured pilot reports, evidence confidence, reported strengths and concerns, and patterns that emerge as additional independent experiences are submitted.

Even a single approved experience can begin providing useful information to another pilot. But Aeromedical Compass distinguishes that early information from a repeated pattern. More substantial conclusions require more supporting data.

Providers are also given an opportunity to respond before submitted experiences affect their public review profile. That right-of-reply process is part of the project's effort to provide useful transparency while treating both pilots and providers fairly.

Built for Pilots Making Difficult Decisions

For many pilots, selecting an aviation medical professional is not comparable to choosing an ordinary service provider.

The person a pilot selects may become involved in a process affecting medical certification, employment, finances and ultimately a career built over decades. Pilots therefore deserve better information.

The goal is to make Aeromedical Compass increasingly useful for practical questions: Who works with cases like mine? What resources are available? What have other pilots reported about their experiences? Are those reports isolated experiences or recurring patterns? How strong is the information behind what I am reading?

This Only Works if Pilots Participate

The directory can tell pilots who is out there. The pilot community is what can eventually help explain what the experience is like.

If you have worked with an AME, HIMS AME, aviation psychiatrist, psychologist, neuropsychologist, treatment program or another professional involved in your aeromedical journey, consider sharing your experience.

Good experiences matter just as much as bad ones. Identifying professionals who consistently help pilots navigate the aeromedical system effectively may be one of the most valuable things this project can accomplish.

Every legitimate report helps make the next pilot's decision a little more informed.

A Compass—Not an Endorsement

The name is intentional.

Aeromedical Compass is not intended to tell a pilot whom to choose. It is intended to give pilots better information with which to make that choice themselves.

Search the directory. Review the available information. Examine pilot experiences where they exist. Consider the strength of the available evidence. Then make the decision that is right for your circumstances.

That is what Aeromedical Compass is becoming: a practical navigation tool for the aviation medical system, built around transparency, context and better-informed choices.