Public Comment Process

Public Comment is intended to allow both regular participants in QIBA Activities and also those who don't have the time to dedicate to regular participation a chance to contribute their thoughts on proposed specifications before they are formally released. It's also an excellent chance to engage relevant stakeholder individuals and organizations. Comments are accepted from all.

NOTE: If you receive few or no public comments, that's a bad sign. Presuming we didn't hit perfection on the first try, it means we didn't convince people it was important enough to read in any great detail. That bodes poorly for our ability to convince people it is important enough to read and conform to. Good outreach is a significant part of Public Comment. It's our first stage at marketing the Profile.

Period: 30 days (may be longer at the discretion of the committee)

• Biomarker Committee reviews and approves for public comment
• Editor tidies up PC draft (e.g. "accept all changes" in Word) and submits to RSNA Staff
• RSNA Staff publishes PC draft
• The Profile has now reached the Public Comment Stage. Work toward Consensus begins.

• RSNA Staff sends PC announcement to mailing lists
  • detail location of document to be reviewed, deadline for comment submission, method of submission
  • provide a link to the QIBA Public Comment Form
  • reach out to any organizations and individuals that might have and interest or expertise to contribute
• Commenters submit comments to RSNA Staff (via web form or emailed comment form)
  • commenters include committee members, other QIBA people, external bodies
  • this is the key point for asynchronous engagement
  • please use the comment forms; it saves the Editor having to transcribe your comments

• RSNA Staff/editor collate all comments into a resolution spreadsheet (see Google Sheet template or Word table
  • sort by line number and priority (Low/Med/High)
  • re-title the leftmost column from "Leave Blank" to "#"
  • fill the leftmost column with incrementing numbers. Now you can refer to "Comment #43", or re-sort the table if you like
  • re-title the rightmost column from "Leave Blank" to "Resolution"
• Editor resolves comments with priority Low
  • turn on Change Tracking in Word
  • for most Low comments (typos), fix it in the Profile document and enter "Done" in the Resolution column of the resolution table
  • if any Low comments prove problematic, elevate to Med
• Biomarker Committee reviews Med & High comments
  • step through the resolution table
  • each comment may be:
    • accepted = proposed text accepted as is
    • rejected = committee does not agree with issue (document reason, e.g. out of scope, )
    • resolved = issue accepted but resolved differently than proposed
  • consider getting a 3-person sub-committee to take a first pass at this and focus the full committee on items needing discussion
• Editor records decision and explanation (as needed) in the Resolution column of the resolution table/spreadsheet
  • The Google template includes a status column with codewords to track completion progress.

• RSNA Staff posts resolution spreadsheet and change-tracked Profile Document on the Wiki
  • This helps people review the resolution of their comments and the changes that resulted from the Public Comment process
• Biomarker Committee reviews and approves as Consensus
• Modality Coordination Committee reviews and approves as Consensus
• Editor tidies up Consensus draft (e.g. "accept all changes" in Word) and submits to RSNA Staff
• RSNA Staff publishes Consensus draft
• The Profile has now reached the Consensus Stage.