Background on Evolution of Terms: thermographer, thermologist, thermographic technician
Depending upon circles, a thermographer can be a person who reads the images or one who takes the images. Originally it was exclusively used for those interpreting images and those taking the images were called thermographic technicians.
In general, the quality thermography interpreters still call themselves thermographers, yet fast-food technicians usually call themselves thermographers too. Possibly as a result of this, interpreters began calling themselves “thermologists” to differentiate themselves from the new “thermographers”.
As an IACT certified thermographic technician, I attend meetings online with Dr. Amalu. At a recent one, the subject of what it takes to become proficient at reading images came up because a technician mentioned a course advertised of only 3 days to learn to read images!
That sparked a followup note from Dr. Amalu describing the glory days of insurance covering thermography and courses in federally funded universities that were teaching doctors to read images. Enjoy his note below! (IACT is the abbreviation for International Academy of Clinical Thermology and International Academy of Certified Thermographers; the latter is an umbrella organization for not just medical but also industrial and automotive thermography):
The question, or statement, about hearing that there is a 3 day course to become a "Board Certified" thermologist is incredibly demeaning to all of us who dedicated so much time to be trained. Three whole days huh. I have heard about these "courses" and have questioned a few "graduates". They are clueless. These are some of the same doctors who will say that they see the carotid artery, lymphatic congestion, etc. Basic anatomy errors.
As I mentioned in our meeting, at this time I know of no professional thermologist courses available. The feedback from doctors is that the training takes too long and that it is much easier to train a technician in their office and send the images out to be read. We understand this. Health care offices are very accustomed to sending patients out for labs, x-ray, CT, MRI, mammograms, etc.
During the 1980’s, the IACT courses were taught by board certified clinical thermologists in some of our federally accredited universities as part of the core curriculum. As core curriculum, dedicated classes and laboratory time would be taught daily and covered over a matter of months. However, courses are now offered only as post-graduate instruction. When I took the course it was provided as post-graduate instruction out of one of these same universities. My course consisted of 120 hours of classroom education (once per month for one year), 2 years of supervised practical field experience, submission of a minimum of 275 thermograms read back-to-back with a thermologist instructor, two written examinations, and a final practical examination. In order to be proficient in interpreting breast thermograms one needs more training. As such, I approached Dr. William Hobbins, MD, FACS to provide me with private instruction. At the time, Dr. Hobbins was the worldwide authority on breast thermography. Dr. Hobbins mentored me for 2 years providing me with practical instruction consisting of hundreds of breast thermograms. It took a total of 4 years to become proficient.
Back in the glory days of thermography (Late 1970’s through the 1980’s with full insurance reimbursement including Medicare), there were 4 main associations offering training. Each of these associations based their board certification courses on the published literature and were taught by some of the greatest researchers known. As such, their courses were very similar in hours and requirements. Of equal importance is the background of the instructors. What qualifies them to instruct you? Where did they get their certification? They must be able to track their “board certification” back to one of these original associations. If you find any current source offering certification as a thermologist (interpreting and reporting thermograms), and they are not being taught by “qualified” board certified thermologists following the training hours and requirements mentioned above, I would be very concerned.