The FAA instructed the aviation psychiatrists during academic meetings in April 2021 that in-office, in-person evaluations were the gold standard for assessment of first-time clients.

With air travel re-opening and vaccines available, the FAA believed in 2021 that the grounds for remote assessments had diminished.

I agreed with that stance and performed my last virtual evaluation in December 2020, right as COVID-19 vaccines became widely available.

The FAA’s January 22, 2025 memorandum places into writing the verbal guidance first given in 2021. You can download and read the memo if you want more information.

Dr. Gregory Kirk is a HIMS psychiatrist in Denver, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City and is Board-Certified by the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry in Adult Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. You can make Aviation Psychiatry appointments on this page.

Dr. Kirk’s specialty in Aviation Psychiatry is in the assessment of complex medical certification cases. He is licensed in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah and sees a few hundred pilots per year in Denver, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City clinics. He works with most regional carriers operating in the Midwest and West and, nationwide, with every legacy carrier, the main cargo operators, and all unions. Dr. Kirk also evaluates military pilots who have or are expected to have service-connected disabilities.

Away from aviation, Dr. Kirk evaluates and treats players in the National Basketball Association and the National Football League and is an expert in unanticipated deaths and injuries associated with drugs, alcohol, behavioral disorders, and mental illness.

Dr. Kirk’s Las Vegas office is located in Town Square Las Vegas, across Las Vegas Boulevard from Harry Reid International Airport.