We appreciate Mr. Ruppel and Mr. Motram's interest in the recent American Thoracic Society (ATS) document on spirometry in the occupational setting (1) and their understanding of the importance of technician training and feedback in improving the quality of spirometry testing. They also advocate for credentialing based on educational background and specialty examinations, as is offered by the National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC), which provides credentialing examinations for respiratory therapy professionals. Although such credentialing can ensure a certain knowledge base and educational background, it can also exclude individuals capable of performing excellent spirometry from serving as technicians, creating substantial obstacles to providing spirometry in a diverse range of settings. The literature reviewed in this ATS document demonstrates that with appropriate focused practical training, individuals from different backgrounds can successfully perform high-quality spirometry. Formal initial and refresher training should provide a practical foundation of knowledge about spirometry and should also include hands-on instruction in performing the tests. Ongoing review of spirometry tests performed by technicians to identify problems affecting test quality, and timely feedback to correct those problems, is also essential to improve the quality of spirometry testing, as Mr. Ruppel and Mr. Motram also note. This general approach to training spirometry technicians has been shown to provide high-quality spirometry in many countries. We thank the NBRC and others throughout the world for their efforts to train technicians and improve the quality of spirometry testing.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.