Standing Evidence Panel Charter
The governance controls that prevent a single clinician, specialty, society, payer, or commercial source from controlling ARKA evidence ratings.
Last updated: July 18, 2026
Composition
The standing panel has at least four role-typed seats: radiology, primary care, an evidence methodologist with health-services or GRADE expertise, and a patient representative. Additional clinical, ethics, health-equity, or payer-observer seats may be added, but no required seat may be replaced and no more than half of voting seats may be held by radiology specialists.
Members are appointed for renewable two-year terms. ARKA employment does not waive disclosure or recusal duties.
COI disclosure and recusal
Members disclose employment, board and advisory roles, consulting, research support, ownership, professional-society leadership, payer interests, vendor interests, and relevant institutional or personal relationships before appointment and at least annually.
Every item requires a fresh disclosure, including an explicit “None.” A member whose interest could reasonably be affected by the item is recorded as recused and cannot vote, chair the item, or count toward quorum. An unrecused relevant COI invalidates sign-off.
Quorum and decisions
A criterion or rating is signed off only after at least three distinct role types approve, including the evidence methodologist and at least one non-radiology role. At least three distinct reviewers must supply those approvals. Abstentions and recusals do not count.
Returned or rejected items must be revised and presented again. Earlier dispositions remain in the append-only audit trail.
Cadence and records
The panel meets at least quarterly and for material matrix releases. Ratings are reconsidered after new high-impact evidence, a safety signal, a material source update, or a substantiated challenge. Composition, attendance, and disclosures are reviewed annually.
Item-level roles, disclosures, recusals, and decisions are retained in the immutable evidence_panel_signoff audit table. The validated quorum is mirrored into EvidenceProfile.signoff and independently rechecked before matrix code can be emitted.