TECHNOLOGISTS NEWS

SNM MOBILE COACH HITS THE ROAD

SNM’s Mobile Coach, which debuted at the 2003 annual meeting in New Orleans, LA, in June, has been launched on a year-long educational tour of the United States. In partnership with Molecular Imaging Corporation (MIC), the mobile educational exhibit is scheduled to visit sites across the nation in the coming 8 months, ending its tour on the exhibit floor of the 51st SNM Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, next June.

Tour stops scheduled to date include SNM chapter meetings, hospital and university health fairs, nuclear medicine departments’ public outreach events, career days at community colleges, and state and national meetings of imaging-related organizations. Venues and sites for the coach’s appearance continue to be added to the schedule. Promotion and publicity at each of the Mobile Coach’s stops are being coordinated with local hosts who have the option of providing their own technologists to staff the exhibits. To schedule a visit from the SNM Mobile Coach at your facility, contact MIC at 877-404-6738.

The goal of the SNM in launching the Mobile Coach activity is to help raise the awareness of health care providers, health care consumers, and the media of the growing value and benefits of nuclear medicine at the community level. To that end, PET and PET/CT are prominently featured in the storyboards and model displays, helping to raise awareness about the growing value of these technologies in the diagnosis and treatment of many conditions and diseases. Displays, storyboards, and brochures cover a broad range of other nuclear medicine topics as well.

In addition to MIC, other contributors to the SNM Mobile Coach effort include GE Medical Systems; Siemens Medical Solutions; Cardinal Health; Philips Medical Systems; Amici, Inc.; Bracco Diagnostics; IMV, Ltd.; AMI; and A&K Specialty Vehicles.

You can track the SNM Mobile Coach and see updated scheduling and specific community stops by visiting either www.snm.org or www.molecularimagingcorp.com.

PERFORMANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR THE NUCLEAR MEDICINE TECHNOLOGIST, 2003

The SNMTS Academic Affairs and Socio-Economic Affairs Committees recently revised the Performance and Responsibility Guidelines for the Nuclear Medicine Technologist, which were approved at the last annual meeting of the SNM by the National Council and the House of Delegates.

Nuclear medicine is a rapidly changing and evolving modality. Because of this, it is important that the document be revised periodically in order to stay current with the field. The Guidelines are not meant to serve as a procedure manual nor do they represent the competencies of an entry-level technologist. Rather, they are meant to represent the wide range of skills, knowledge and responsibilities of the practicing nuclear medicine technologists across the country. The most significant changes made to the new Guidelines are the addition of PET and PET/CT skills.

The Guidelines breaks down the scope of performance of nuclear medicine technology into 6 areas:

Patient Care: The exercise of judgment to assess and respond to patients needs before, during and after nuclear medicine procedures.
Quality Control: The evaluation and maintenance of a quality control program to ensure instrumentation credibility and reliability.
Diagnostic Procedures: The utilization of appropriate technique to ensure quality diagnostic images or laboratory results.
Radiopharmaceuticals: The procurement, preparation, quality control, calculation, identification, documentation, administration, disposal, storage, and safe handling of radiopharmaceuticals.
Radionuclide therapy: The collaboration with an authorized user to apply and manage a therapeutic radionuclide treatment.
Radiation safety: The use of techniques and education that will minimize radiation exposure to patients, the general public, and health care personnel consistent with the as low as can be reasonably achieved (ALARA) concept.

The complete Performance and Responsibility Guidelines for the Nuclear Medicine Technologist can be found on page 222 in this issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology.

TECHNOLOGIST ABSTRACTS RECEIVE ADDITIONAL RECOGNITION

One of the best-kept secrets of the SNMTS has been the possibility of a technologist winning a financial award for a paper or poster presentation at the annual meeting. The top 3 scientific paper presenters and top 3 poster presenters, as judged by their peers, will each receive a plaque and a financial award at the SNMTS business meeting to be held next June at the SNM 51st Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. In addition, abstract submitters may request consideration for special awards given by the Cardiovascular Council or Brain Imaging Council. Papers presented by students are eligible for student awards.

The Scientific and Teaching Committee asks technologists to begin preparing for presentation next year. Abstracts must be submitted in January, and acceptances will be announced in early February.

Presentations should be well attended. Last June the SNMTS National Council, at the recommendation of the Continuing Education Committee, voted to make technologist peer-reviewed scientific paper sessions that are a minimum of 1 hour in length eligible for continuing education credit. It is the view of the Continuing Education Committee that “scientific paper sessions include research or works in progress that have real value to the daily practice of NMTs. Furthermore attendance at scientific paper sessions encourages research and teaches how research is to be conducted, which further serves to enhance the field of nuclear medicine.”

PUBLIC AFFAIRS UPDATE

Arizona Implements Technologists Licensure

Beginning January 1, 2004, nuclear medicine technologists practicing in Arizona must be licensed by the state and will be required to hold certification through either the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists or the Nuclear Medicine Technologists Certification Board.

All Arizona nuclear medicine technologists are urged to submit an application to the Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency (ARRA) by December 12, 2003. Uncertified but practicing technologists must also apply. They will be eligible for a temporary license valid for 6 months and renewable once for another 6 months. During that year, the technologist can convert a temporary license to a permanent license by passing the state nuclear medicine technology examination. Non-certified technologists must provide documentation verifying employment as a nuclear medicine technologist before January 1, 2004, to be eligible to take the state certification examination. More information is available on the ARRA Web site at http://www.arra.state.az.us.

CARE Act Legislative Update

Currently, both the House and Senate version of the Consumer Assurance or Radiologic Excellence bills (CARE Act in the House and RadCARE in the Senate) have been referred to committee. The bills must now gather enough support to make it out of committee and be passed by a majority in both chambers. As of press time, there are 58 co-sponsors of the House version of the bill and 5 co-sponsors of the Senate version. Both versions will require more co-sponsors before any further action can occur. Luckily, there is still time left in the 108th Congress to garner support. Your help is urgently needed to gain more co-sponsors for the bill in both the House and the Senate. E-mail, write, fax, or call your congressional representatives to let them know that, as a nuclear medicine technologist, you support the CARE and RadCARE bills. You can log on to the SNM Web site at www.snm.org and use the new CARE Act Tool Box to contact your representatives and urge them to co-sponsor HR 1214 and S 1197.

VOICEBOX

2004 Mid-Winter Educational Symposium

SNM’s Mid-Winter Meeting, February 7–8 at the Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim, CA, includes a 2-day educational symposium that explores recent advances in nuclear medicine and relates these advances to the practice of clinical medicine. The preregistration deadline is January 5.

The matrix on the following pages includes detailed information on course titles, instructors, times, and locations for each continuing education session.

The technologists symposium on Saturday will explore the growing role of the nuclear medicine technologist in radioimmunotherapy, molecular imaging, nuclear cardiology, radiation safety, and reimbursement. Technologists may also attend and receive continuing education credit for the physicians’ symposia.

The physicians program has been organized around three rapidly advancing subspecialties in nuclear medicine: PET, nuclear cardiology, and radiopharmaceutical therapy.

The PET Center of Excellence will present a program designed to provide a clinical perspective of PET imaging. PET is viewed in the context of disease detection and treatment planning. This program is designed to benefit radiologists, oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, neurologists, and nuclear medicine technologists, as well as physicians who supervise and interpret nuclear medicine procedures and referring physicians who order PET studies.

The targeted radiopharmaceutical therapy symposium will address all aspects of radiopharmaceutical therapy in cancer: the infrastructure and facilities required for optimal radiation physics and radiochemistry; optimization of referral and reimbursement; patient selection and treatment criteria; and appropriate patient management, including pharmaceutical administration, patient imaging and monitoring, and follow up. This seminar is relevant to clinicians with an interest in targeted therapy, as well as nuclear medicine technologists and managers who are involved in imaging and reimbursement issues.

The cardiovascular track will cover 2 of the most important current procedures in nuclear cardiology: radionuclide ventriculography and combined gated rest and stress SPECT perfusion imaging. The curriculum will include radiotracers and instrumentation, stress testing, skills in recognizing pitfalls and artifacts, and usefulness in clinical decision-making. This program also covers areas of rapid evolution: perfusion and metabolic PET imaging, the augmented potentials of PET/CT and SPECT-CT, imaging of ischemia, cell death, angiogenesis, and gene expression. These topics will be considered in the context of parallel developments in ultrasound, CT, and MRI imaging.

More information, including updates to the curricula, housing, and amenities as well as online registration, is available at www.snm.org/midwinter.