The Academy of Elite Doctors is governed by a small number of standing committees, each with a defined remit. This page sets out what those committees do, how members are appointed to them, and how the Academy keeps its decisions defensible — particularly the decisions that carry weight, such as member verification and the annual awards.
Governing Council
The Governing Council holds overall responsibility for the Academy’s direction, its academic standards and its finances. It approves the annual programme, ratifies the decisions of the other committees, and is the final authority on questions of membership standing. The Council is chaired by the Founder of the Academy, Dr A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist.
Academic and Scientific Committee
This committee owns the content: the curriculum behind the Academy course programme, the CME calendar, the standard of the Academy reading list, and the scientific quality of anything published under the Academy’s name. It sets the learning objectives for each course, appoints faculty, and reviews teaching material before release.
Research Committee
The Research Committee oversees the Academy research programme: protocol review, statistical support, multi-centre project governance and authorship allocation. It is also the Academy’s authority on research integrity, and it declines to support work that does not meet ICMJE authorship criteria or that lacks institutional ethics approval.
Editorial Panel
The Editorial Panel reviews member submissions to the interesting cases library and the image of the month challenge. Panel members are drawn from across the subspecialties so that each submission is read by someone who works in that area. The panel checks de-identification as carefully as it checks clinical content.
Membership and Credentials Committee
This committee verifies the qualifications, training and council registration of every applicant before a listing appears in the find an elite doctor directory, and it runs the annual reconfirmation cycle. It also handles complaints about member conduct, referring serious matters to the Governing Council.
Awards Committee
The Awards Committee administers the Academy’s annual awards, including Scholar of the Year and Icon of the Year. Nominations are scored against published criteria by at least three reviewers. Any committee member with a professional, institutional or financial relationship to a nominee recuses themselves from scoring that nomination, and the recusal is recorded.
Ethics and Governance Committee
This committee maintains the Academy’s conflict-of-interest register, reviews any commercial relationship that could influence academic content, and is the route by which a member can challenge a decision. Its work is reflected in the Academy’s legal forum, copyright and intellectual property positions.
Appointment and terms
Committee members are appointed by the Governing Council from the Academy’s membership, normally for a term of two years, renewable once. Appointments take account of subspecialty balance and geographical spread, so that decisions are not made from a single institution or a single city. Committee service is unpaid.
Serving on a committee
Academy members who want to contribute should write through the contact page, indicating the committee, the expertise they bring and the time they can commit. If you are not yet a member, join the Academy first. More about the Academy’s origins and purpose is on the about page.