NMTCB REPORT

DANNY A. BASSO, CNMT, NCT, FSNMTS

Every year the Nuclear Medicine Technologist Certification Board (NMTCB) brings in experts in entry-level nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology, and PET technology to write items (questions) for the certification exams. As I write this report, I am still recovering from a very successful item writers weekend, and I am happy to say that all three exams are in great shape for 2007. This would not be possible without all of the hard work from volunteers who contribute items. I want to offer a huge thank you to all of the item writers. Because of their work over the years, the board feels that they have enough items in the nuclear cardiology bank to start offering the NCT (nuclear cardiology technologist) exam throughout the year in 2008. This is not a guarantee, but the board is certainly working to achieve that goal.

The results of the specialty exams are in, and the NCT and PET exams continue to be difficult but fair exams. In 2006, 171 candidates sat for the PET exam, and 104 (60.8%) passed. For the NCT exam, 128 (58.5%) of the 219 candidates who sat for the exam passed it. These results are similar to those of previous years. The results and statistics of the 2006 entry-level exam will be reported at a later time. The first practice analysis survey for the nuclear cardiology exam was sent to 447 certified nuclear cardiology technologists, and Robert Anger, MS, chair of the Task Analysis Committee, is busy compiling the results. These results should be available soon and will be used to adjust the NCT exam's content outline.

Several changes to the entry-level exam eligibility requirements went into effect in 2007:

1. Graduates of approved nuclear medicine technology educational programs must take the entry-level exam within five years of their official graduation date.

2. All eligibility requirements for the entry-level exam must be completed within the 5-year period immediately prior to the candidate's application—this also applies to candidates pursuing alternate eligibility.

3. Certificants who have let their certification lapse for 5 years or more must meet current eligibility requirements and successfully complete the entry-level exam in order to regain their certification.

These changes were made for two important reasons: to limit the amount of time a person could claim to be registry eligible and to assure that technologists reentering the field have remained current.

In other important news, the NMTCB is trying to make it easier to keep track of continuing education (CE) credits. The board has passed two resolutions with this in mind:

1. The board will actively pursue a data exchange program with SNM so that VOICE credit reports will transfer directly to the NMTCB's database.

2. Beginning in 2009, the billing and continuing education credit tracking system will change from the current January to December cycle to an individualized system that tracks credits for periods beginning with each certificant's birth month.

Both of these resolutions were developed based on requests from certificants. Hopefully, these resolutions will help our certificants keep up with their CE requirements.

It is with great sadness that I report the resignation of Bhaskar Dawadi, PhD, from the post of executive director of the NMTCB. Dr. Dawadi has faithfully served the board over the last seven-and-a-half years. During that time the NMTCB implemented several important changes including the nuclear cardiology and PET specialty exams, the new ethics and continuing education policies, and the relocation of the office to a building that the board purchased and renovated. Dr. Dawadi resigned due to family reasons and to embark on other challenging career opportunities. His leadership, advice, guidance, and, most important, friendship will certainly be greatly missed.

The NMTCB is currently accepting applications for the vacated executive director position. For more information, please see the ad in the recruitment section of this issue of JNMT, and visit our website at www.nmtcb.org.

Last but not least, it is with great pleasure that I introduce a new director of the NMTCB, Jimel Carpenter, MS, CNMT, NCT, RT(N), RDMS. As you can see from his credentials, Jimel brings a great deal of experience and knowledge of medical imaging to the board. He has participated in writing items for the NCT exam and in both local and regional educational programs over the last several years. Jimel will be a huge asset to the NMTCB.