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Southeastern Chapter Society of Nuclear Medicine
and Molecular Imaging
Newsletter
February, 2014
 
In This Issue
President's Message
2014 SECSNMMI Annual Meeting
NMTCB Announcement
Leadership Academy Update
TS President's Message

Message from the SECSNMMI
President

 

Daniel Lee, MD

 

"The only constant is change."  This observation by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus seems truer with each passing moment.  Macroeconomic forces, social phenomena, legislation, and evolving technologies affect us all, and many recent, current, and ongoing changes will affect medicine in general and nuclear medicine in particular. 

 

The net results of some changes may only be understood over time.  The aging of the baby boomers and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act suggests that more people will be using more healthcare services, which should lead to growth in healthcare.  On the other hand, there are real, current downward pressures on healthcare such as reduced benefits provided by many third-party payers as well as legitimate concerns about exposure to radiation, overutilization of imaging, and accelerating healthcare costs. Imaging-nuclear and otherwise-has been identified as a prime contributing factor to the rapidly rising costs of healthcare in the US, though as relatively low-hanging fruit, it may represent just the beginning of contractionary pressures on healthcare.  Consequently, there have been financial strains upon imaging providers and their employers, creating a grim situation for new and even existing physicians and technologists seeking employment.  In turn, the impossibly tight job market of the last few years has stirred important discussions about the number of people we train and how we train them.  Finally, concerns about the federal budget and implementation of the sequester have reduced available funding to support research and innovation.

 

Click here for the full article.

 


2014 SECSNMMI
Annual Meeting

Wonderful World of

Molecular Imaging

October 9-12, 2014

Hilton Orlando

Lake Buena Vista

Lake Buena Vista, FL

This year's meeting will feature:

  • Special workshop on Cardiac Imaging
  • Special workshop on CT - a minimum of 8 CT credit hours will be offered during entire meeting
  • Instrumentation Sessions
  • Theranostics Session
  • Talks on Gallium, Lymphocintigraphy, MIBG, New Tracers, Breast Imaging and much, much more.
  • Abstract Presentations by SEC Residents, Students and Technologists
  • CME, VOICE, ACPE, CAMPEP and SAM credits will be applied for.

The Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board to Develop

Entry-Level Computed Tomography (CT) Credential

The NMTCB is developing a new entry-level certification exam for computed tomography (CT). The NMTCB (CT) credential will be considered an extension of the entry-level nuclear medicine exam and is designed to establish the competency of a nuclear medicine technologist to perform CT procedures. This examination is planned for delivery in 2014.

 

Click here for the full article.

 

Abstracts To Be Accepted for 2014 SECSNMMI Annual Meeting
 

Jon A. Baldwin, DO, MBS

University of Alabama at Birmingham
 

On behalf of David Brandon, MD, the Program Chair of the Southeastern Chapter of the Society of Nuclear Medicine Annual Meeting, I would like to make you aware of an exciting opportunity for technologists, technologist students, residents, and medical physicist trainees.

 

I will once again be administrating the Abstract Sessions for the coming meeting in Orlando.  I am also the Program Director of the Nuclear Medicine Residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  As a Program Director, it is my mission to promote scholarly activities amongst my residents and fellows; not simply to fulfill ACGME mandates, but to promote and encourage academic and research interest in the Nuclear Medicine profession.  I am also painfully aware of the paucity of quality venues at which students, residents and fellows can give presentations.  As I am heavily involved in the training of technologist students as well, I know there are seemingly even fewer settings at which they may present their work.

 

I therefore offer a forum where posters and abstracts can be presented.  I would also like to have a "competition" where program directors of medical physics, residency, fellowship and technologist training programs cajole their trainees to prepare an abstract to be given at the 2014 meeting.  We will have the submissions judged by a panel of resident and technologist educator "experts".  The best entries will be allowed to present their material at the Southeastern Chapter meeting.  As an exciting new addition, a travel grant will be allotted to outstanding submissions, as judged by our panel of experts.  Please see the website (www.secsnm.org) for more information, as well as for the link for you to use to submit their information to us.  If submitting as a trainee, they must come from current trainees or recent graduates (within one year of graduation).  The submission deadline is 9/2/14.

 

With the job market as constrained as it is, I hope you will avail of this opportunity.  Having a presentation at a prestigious regional meeting can only enhance one's profile when looking for employment, particularly if one is pursuing an academic position.  From a Program Director's point of view, this may also help ensure compliance with ACGME requirements for scholarly activity or JRCNMT requirements for the component of research training (JRCNMT Standard C2.2.r).

 

Thank you for your time and participation.  We look forward to seeing you in Orlando!



JNM Update

 

Dominique Delbeke, MD, PhD

Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Nuclear Medicine 

 

In January of 2012, it was a great honor for me to become Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, whichis the educational flagship of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.  Its main mission is to disseminate scientific information to all members of the Society and the medical community at large in a concerted effort to advance the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.  JNM was ranked the top nuclear medicine journal worldwide, according to data released in the 2012 Journal Citation Reports� published by Thomson Reuters.  JNM -- a peer-reviewed, monthly publication -- earned an impact factor of 5.774.

 

Click here for the full article.

Message from the SECSNMMI-TS President

 

Cynthia Elliott Brodnax, CNMT, RT(R,CT)

 

Greetings from the almost thawed out state of Alabama, it seems like the entire South has had some of the wackiest weather any of us have experienced in quite a while. So here's hoping that all is well in your state and home area.

 

As I assumed the Presidency from Karen Lauffer, my first thought was oh my, can I really do this?, then sure I can, with all the great people in the Southeastern Chapter who have come before me, it should be a breeze. While I have been around for years, I never really felt qualified to run for an office, but once I realized that the Chapter is just an expansion of the local organizations, I felt it was the next logical step.

 

Click here for the full article.

 


JNMT Update
 

Norman E. Bolus, MSPH, MPH, CNMT, FSNMMI-TS

Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology

 

Beginning in July of 2011, I began a transition into the role as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology (JNMT). I officially took over from Frances Neagley on January 1st, 2012. The JNMT is the sister journal of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) and is published quarterly. The JNM and the JNMT share resources, reviewers and support staff for both journals, this helps streamline the process of managing the journals for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).

 

It has been a great experience learning the process of being the Editor-in-Chief and being in charge of driving the main journal for Nuclear Medicine Technologists in our field. Coming into this role I had many goals and I am working on several of them as time goes on. One goal was to start having 2 CE offerings in each quarterly journal. While I have had some difficulty getting this accomplished, my new Continuing Education editor, Amy Brady, and I have come up with a plan going forward that this should not be a problem. If you have an idea for a CE article or would like to write one please let me or her know.

 

Click here for the full article.

 


Do you know who your SECSNMMI and  
SECSNMMI-TS Officers Are?

 

Click here to find out! 

 


Need Credits?  
Click here for a listing of 2014 State, Regional and National Meeting.

Want to see what our State organizations are doing?

 

Alabama

Georgia

Florida

Kentucky

North Carolina

South Carolina

Tennessee 


Contact Us 


Southeastern Chapter SNM
1240 Iroquois Avenue, Ste. 106
Naperville, Illinois 60563
Ph:  630/428-3877
Email:  info@secsnm.org
Web Site:  www.secsnm.org