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Technical Support Committee (TSC)

The Technical Support Committees (TSCs) cover seven different technical areas and provide critical support to the Technical Review Committee in reviewing, assessing, and making recommendations regarding Change Requests. The committees all complete a TSC CR Evaluation form to summarize their review.


TSC Duties and Responsibilities

Review Change Requests (CR) and Advise TRC
  • The TRC will determine which CRs TSC need review. The TRC will strive to triage CRs early and assign them out to TSC Committees before starting the overall review process so the TSC has a reasonable amount of time to review the CR and return its report.
    • NOTE: The TSC will not need to review every CR; just those assigned by the TRC.
    • Multiple TSCs may need to review a proposal so multi-picks should be enabled

The CMAHC will provide:
  • CR content for review and evaluation is all on-line.
  • Key CMAHC web links for use by the TSC.
    • Change Requests and member comments
    • TSC CR Evaluation form
  • A listing of TSC member e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

The TSC should focus on assessing the technical aspects of the CR vs. making recommendations on voting.

Review
  • Members of each TSC will determine how they want to conduct the reviews (e.g., conference calls, e-mail) and will set up a system to be able to return the review by the TRC deadline.
  • TSC will conduct technical review and evaluation of the CR, review of supporting documentation and Member comments (as appropriate), and present an evaluation back to the TRC.
    • Review the TSC CR Evaluation form for pertinent questions to be considered.
  • Determine if CR is acceptable as submitted, technically defensible, technically achievable, whether additional research is needed, potential for public health impact, and the potential cost impact.
    • Let the TRC know if the group thinks this CR should be the basis for creation of a new CMAHC Ad Hoc Committee for further work.
  • Outline the pros and cons of the CR.

Alterations
  • The TSC should feel free to suggest to the TRC, wording changes or other edits, deletions, additions, substitutions, or new and/or innovative ideas about how to address the issue that would improve the quality of the CR.
  • The TSC should not give a voting recommendation on the CR.

Report
  • The TSC will complete the TSC CR Evaluation form.
  • The TSC review does not need to reach consensus. However, the TSC should strive to summarize all TSC member viewpoints for TRC review. All members should give feedback if possible. Summaries should not be from single members vs. from the entire TSC membership.
  • Summarize first-round member comments and give recommended dispensation.

Participate on TRC Conference Calls When Necessary
  • Representative(s) of a TSC may be requested to participate on TRC conference calls to discuss technical aspects of certain CRs.