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A/Prof Sze Ting Lee, President |
Dear Colleagues
It has been a very busy start to the year already with our Indexation campaign in full swing and it remains our top priority.
In the last working week in December, we released our updated Pre-Budget Submission for the May 2023 budget highlighting the Government’s commitment to strengthening Medicare by addressing a “decade of cuts and neglect.”
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The Health Minister Mark Butler requested that the new Assistant Secretary of Department of Health Medicare Benefits & Digital Health and his new Assistant Secretary of Diagnostic Imaging meet with us to discuss our submission.
That along with two other meetings in Canberra led to our “Call for Action” for the case studies of which we received a great response. Thank you for all Fellows who took the time to respond.
The case studies have been delivered to several government departments and have also gone out to several health journalists.
Since December we have also been campaigning more broadly within the halls of parliament and have now delivered our Indexation submission to over 20 different Ministers, Assistant Ministers, Shadow Ministers, Independents and Greens.
We know there has been some number crunching within the Department of Health on ongoing costs of indexation and are hopeful for a change in 2023.
I was also recently interviewed by the Australian Health Journal on our campaign. Please share this link on your socials to disseminate the lack of indexation of nuclear medicine for 25 years. Everyone we have spoken to is appalled at this, but the "tight fiscal environment" keeps coming up!
Please let our General Manager, Lisa, know if you would like to add your local federal member to our campaign list – gm@aanms.org.au
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Australian Medical Association |
In a meeting with the President of the Australian Medical Association, Prof Steve Robson, he has agreed that the AMA will support our bid for indexation, with joint communications to the Minister of Health, and will also advocate for it when he meets with the Minister in April. |
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On another note, I understand that some members, particularly in New South Wales, have been significantly affected by the National Health Reform Act. If you have been affected, please contact our General Manager with the relevant information, and we will collate this and send to the AMA, which is interested to work towards an equitable solution for all medical practitioners, but this will of course require accurate information for us to pass on to them. |
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Theranostics and MSAC Applications |
Theranostics remains a priority for us this year and we are continuing our discussions with the CJCT and College to establish the appropriate process and curriculum renewal concurrently. We will notify the membership as soon as this is up and running. |
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As advised last year, our MSAC application for Lutetium PSMA was unsuccessful based on economic reasons. MSAC acknowledged the clinical need for this therapy and considered it to be a sage and effective therapy, but "not good value for money". We were asked to resubmit and having reduced the ICER (Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio) to a more palatable level, it is out for stakeholder consultation and we are currently waiting on the outcome of the assessment at the next MSAC meeting in July 2023. We are also eagerly anticipating an outcome for the use of FDG PET in RESTAGING of Rare Cancers.
Speaking of MSAC submissions, we have recently responded to MSAC 1744 – 177 Lutetium(nca) Octreotate treatment for advanced neuroendocrine and other high somatostatin receptor expressing tumours, and will also be responding to the MSAC 1657 – Rhenium-188 brachytherapy for non-melanoma skin cancer as well.
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Federal Department of Health (DoH)
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Our monthly meetings continue with the DoH Diagnostic Imaging team and were are currently setting priorities with them to address for this year. Based on our current strategic plan and Board feedback, they include:
1. Reviewing the descriptors for Ga-DOTATATE imaging to beyond GEP-NETs only
2. A second MBS item number to cover increased cost of Thallium-201 for cardiac viability
3. MSAC evaluation of FDG-PET for inflammation
4. MSAC evaluation of PET for cardiac perfusion imaging
5. MSAC evaluation of DOTA scan for Parkinson’s Disease
As they work through the list and ask for expert advice, I will be tapping on the shoulders of some of you who are experts in the field to provide clinical evidence to support these applications.
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CRM (Customer Relationship Management System) Upgrade
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One of the Board priorities for this year is to update our member information.
The current database has been running for over 20 years and is giving us an incomplete picture of our membership, which makes in more difficult when lobbying governments. For example, we are currently unable to established how many of us work in MMM1 vs MMM7*; how many of us work across multiple sites, the age of our workforce and putting together a corresponding strategy etc...
Ultimately, we will be asking members to input further information into the new system, once the system is up and running, and will endeavour to make it as simple for each of you as possible, especially when it comes to renewing your membership.
*MMM - The Modified Monash Model is how we define whether a location is a city, rural, remote or very remote.
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We are working closely with our ANZSNM colleagues to strength ARTnet’s offer in the clinical trial space.
ARTnet held its first strategic planning session last year and have both a rolling strategic and business plan in place, with Geoff Schembri, our Immediate Past President, chairing the Executive Committee this year.
They will reconvene on 26 May for further strategic planning, and more news will follow.
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Upcoming AGM - Saturday 27 May 1pm-2pm |
We are hoping to see as many of you as possible at the upcoming ANZSNM Annual Scientific Meeting in Adelaide (26-28 May), where we will also hold the Fellows Dinner and our AGM.
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As our Constitution is two years old now, our Finance, Risk Management and Governance Committee (FARMG) have conducted a review this year and will be putting forward some minor changes by Special Resolution at the AGM. All changes will be communicated to members beforehand, and voting will be conducted in the room, by proxy and online.
Please note that we will also be holding elections for Board Members where I hope to see a strong geographical representation of Board Members. The nomination form has gone out this week with advised timeline of return date. Please don't hesitate to contact me directly for further discussion if you are interested.
We look forward to catching up with as many you then to further outline some of the exciting changes and efforts the Board have been working towards over the last 12 months.
In the meantime, we will be sending out a member survey in the coming months but welcome all member feedback in the interim.
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I take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe long weekend ahead and hope this President's Update has been informative and useful to all of you, the Members of the AANMS. |
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Australasian Association of Nuclear Medicine Specialists
P O Box 73 Balmain NSW 2041 Australia
T: +61-2-9818-4824
Working to promote and advance the practice of nuclear medicine for both diagnosis and therapy
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