EDITOR'S PAGE

Frances Neagley, CNMT, FSNMTS Editor, JNMT

This is my June editorial, but as I write it, it is April and I am just back from spring training in Arizona and firmly entrenched in the opening days of the baseball season. All year the local team has been talking about “rebuilding,” and it was fun to watch all the new, young guys play in March. In April, however, when opening day rolled around, there were the same old players we had seen last year, along with a couple of newly signed older players. And I wondered what had happened to our sparkling new, young players.

That thought segued into my thinking about how baseball mirrors our lives. The Tech Section always tries to recruit new members and has had conferences for emerging leaders to encourage technologists to increase their participation. Then, at the meetings, we see the same (dare I say “old”) people. Although I am guilty of being one of the “same, old” people and I really enjoy seeing friends each year, I keep hoping to see new faces and new people involved in the Tech Section. Whenever I attend meetings, I try to encourage more technologists to become reviewers for the JNMT. It is such a small commitment to the profession and a way to begin getting involved.

Change is slow, not very easy, and quite often fraught with more than a little anguish. Last year, we made the decision to stop printing the test questions with the continuing education articles in the JNMT and to move to an all-online testing process. This was done to be able to respond to any errors that were not caught before going to press and to streamline the process of recording credits. The March issue of the JNMT was the first that implemented this change. Although 1,258 tests were taken, a few technologists complained about the change. The SNMTS Continuing Education Committee decided this was a service that needed to be in the journal, and I have relented to the Committee's pressure.

Therefore, in this issue, we have returned to the printing of the test questions at the end of the continuing education articles. The actual questions online may not be exactly the same, but we are trying an additional review process that we hope will eliminate errors before print. Technologists will still be able to take the test online and have the efficient recording of CEHs. A provision will be made for those technologists who do not have access to a computer, but there will be a fee. Each post-test will include instructions about the changes and the processes for taking the test and obtaining credits.

This month's JNMT once again has 2 continuing education articles; one is the third in our series on CT imaging, and the other is on iodinated contrast agents. We all should thank Elpida Crawford for her hard work on these articles. Elpida not only solicits the articles but also comes up with the topics and often writes and edits the post-test questions.

The remainder of the issue has articles on CT artifacts, IV infusion pumps, absorption of radiopharmaceuticals on vials, and flood sources in lymphoscintigraphy imaging. And last but not least is a submission, from a student in Oklahoma, on red cell survival and sequestration. When I became editor of the JNMT, I stated that one of my goals was to increase the involvement of students and educators. I hope this is the first of many such papers.

So that pretty much brings us to the forthcoming annual meeting in New Orleans. I hope to see a lot of you there. In addition to attending most of the Tech Section business meetings, I will spend some of my time in the publications area of the SNM booth in the exhibit hall, and I really would like to see as many of our members as possible. If we do not meet up in New Orleans, I can always be reached by email at fneagley{at}pacbell.net. Please feel free to contact me about any issues or concerns.