EDITOR'S PAGE

Frances Neagley, CNMT, FSNMTS, Editor, JNMT

Here it is—my second issue. There was a slight problem with the title page on my first issue; but this time you should see the correct listings of the editor, associate editors, and consulting editors. As Fred Fahey, one of my consulting editors, said to me when I reported on the problems with the first issue, “Any first issue worth doing is worth doing twice.” And I must admit, most days I still feel like such a novice at this that for a while every issue is going to feel new to me. My associate and consulting editors, on the other hand, are outstanding in their fields and are invaluable assets to me. They deserve all the recognition I can give them.

I am continuing to try to involve new people in the manuscript-review process, but the “no response” rate is so high that I end up falling back on the experienced and heavily used reviewers. I am certainly not going to give up on getting more technologists involved in this process. At the same time, I want to have the manuscript process move more efficiently so we can offer a reasonable receipt-to-acceptance timeline for the authors.

Our 2007 Annual Meeting will be held as this issue goes into the mail. As a member of the Technologist Section Program Committee, I reviewed some of the abstracts submitted for presentation at the meeting and was impressed not only by the increased number that we received but also by their quality. We will be printing the accepted abstracts in the September issue of JNMT, and they will be available online at http://tech.snmjournals.org. They will also be included in the JNM abstract book that is distributed at the meeting. Hopefully, this renewed interest in presenting research at the Annual Meeting will result in increased submissions to the JNMT later on this year. If you see a presentation or read an abstract that is particularly good, please contact me or personally encourage the author/presenter to submit an article.

The June meeting is always an exciting time for me, as it should be for all nuclear medicine technologists. The meeting will offer many new scientific presentations and new equipment demonstrations, while providing technologists with opportunities to meet and share ideas with other attendees. I know that the meeting can require significant time and money for each technologist, and we can still get all the continuing education hours we need out of the journals and/or online. However, nothing compares with the networking and physical interaction at a meeting like this. Over the years I have learned a lot at these meetings, and more important, I have met technologists from all over the world. I will readily admit that I don't have the most extensive knowledge of nuclear medicine, but I know technologists who have the expertise I lack … and I made those contacts at the annual meetings.

This issue of JNMT has a great selection of articles to inform and educate you. The image on the cover leads into the article on “An Introduction to Na¹⁸F Bone Scintigraphy: Basic Principles, Advanced Imaging Concepts, and Case Examples.” There are also articles on blood volume analysis, parathyroid imaging, PET and FDG, renal imaging, bone imaging for osteomyelitis, lower gastrointestinal bleed imaging, and professional development. In addition, Martha Pickett presents the first of our invited commentaries, a perspective on advanced practice. I like to think that this issue will have something for everyone. As usual, I welcome your comments.