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https://www.nationalacademies.org/trb/events

Aeromedical Oversight Performance Framework and Measurement

This project will develop a performance-based framework for determining whether the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) aeromedical oversight system is effectively managing safety risk across the National Airspace System. Existing approaches emphasize compliance activities and rare adverse outcomes, which provide limited insight into whether oversight actions are preventing complex, latent medical and human-performance risks. The research will adapt the FAA’s broader oversight strategy to the aeromedical environment. It will define the populations and activities subject to oversight, clarify the objectives of the FAA’s regulatory, guidance, approval, surveillance, and corrective functions, and trace how these activities are expected to influence safety. Researchers will identify operational signals, data sources, outcome pathways, and indicators that collectively demonstrate whether oversight is working as intended. The project will produce an aeromedical oversight performance framework, an implementation-ready metrics dictionary, and a phased integration roadmap. These products will support continuous monitoring, earlier identification of emerging risks, and more informed decisions regarding medical certification policy, surveillance priorities, and resource allocation. By making preventive performance more visible, the framework will help the FAA transition from measuring oversight activity to evaluating its safety effects and managing aeromedical risk as an adaptive system.