The public forum was composed into five panels representing federal regulatory agencies, state appraiser regulators, professional appraisal organizations, academicians and users of appraisal services. Questions addressed by the panels included: should a college degree be mandatory for certified and licensed appraisers? Should the state licensure and certification examinations be more comprehensive and challenging? Should testing be required in continuing education courses? Should continuing education include mandatory courses in addition to Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice on a periodic basis?

The AQB is authorized under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 to establish minimum education, experience and examination requirements for real property appraisers to obtain state certification. The current Real Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria was adopted in 1994.

Institute of Medicine (IOM) Releases New Report
The IOM's Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America has issued its second report in the series to identify strategies for achieving a substantial improvement in the quality of health care delivered to Americans. The first report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System focused on patient safety. The second report Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21^st Century focuses "on how the health care delivery system can be designed to innovate and improve care" because the health care delivery system has failed to provide "safe, high-quality care consistently to all Americans."