Committees of volunteer technical experts are the heart of the AAMI standards program. Each AAMI technical committee and US Technical Advisory Group has a defined scope of work and operates under established policies and procedures.
An AAMI technical committee makes recommendations concerning the need for new standards and other technical publications within its area of competency and expertise, determines when a document needs to be revised, drafts new and revised technical documents, and develops committee and public consensus on those drafts. Other duties, which occur less frequently, include developing consensus on official interpretations of standards and advising AAMI on responses to government initiatives and other public policy matters within the committee's area of work.
U.S. Technical Advisory Groups (TAG) develop national consensus on International Standards and Technical Information Reports (TIR) out for comment or vote. TAGs also make recommendations regarding other aspects of international standards participation such as U.S. positions on international new work items, formation of US delegations to international committee and subcommittee meetings, and nomination of US experts to international working groups.
Many AAMI committees review international documents, within their subject matter area, to determine whether to adopt them as national standards or AAMI TIRs.