Annual Meeting in Vancouver Lives Up to Expectations

Norman E. Bolus

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

The annual meeting in Vancouver this year, although the 60th of the society, was the very first of the society under its new name, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. If you missed this one, you missed out on a fantastic meeting that lived up to all expectations. Vancouver was a beautiful location for the meeting, with wonderful panoramic views of Vancouver Bay and of the majestic scenic mountains beyond, as well as the adjacent cruise ship terminal. On exiting the meeting rooms at the convention center, one would see these views from the glass-enclosed structure of the convention center or be within yards of a huge cruise ship. The scenery alone was incredible. The meeting, as always, brought together the world’s foremost experts in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. A new international summit was held with partner groups across the world who gathered in Vancouver for the meeting. The technologist program was organized by the program chair, Kathleen Kirsak, and included varied topics: “Nuclear Cardiology,” “Current Problems, Controversies, and Techniques in Nuclear Medicine,” “Molecular Imaging,” “Radiation Safety,” “Advocacy, Coding, and Reimbursement,” “Clinical Research,” “Therapy and Oncology,” and a back-to-basics categorical course, to name a few. As usual, the meeting had something for everyone’s area of interest, and Kathy did a very good job of organizing the program. Top features of the meeting were the healthy amount of information on PET/MR and on brain imaging, including the new amyloid imaging agent and Parkinson agent, and perhaps the talk of the meeting was the new ²²³Ra therapy agent for advanced prostate cancer that has spread to the bone, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration just before the meeting. Go ahead and mark your calendars for the 2014 SNMMI meetings. The mid-winter meeting will be February 6–9 in Palm Springs, California, and the annual meeting will be June 7–11 in St. Louis, Missouri.

As we move closer to Nuclear Medicine Week 2013, do not forget to celebrate at your institution. The first full week of October is always Nuclear Medicine Week. This year it falls on October 6–12, and the theme is “Molecular Imaging: The Future…Delivered.” Visit www.snmmi.org/nmw for complete information. This Web page also includes a link to a promotional toolkit for Nuclear Medicine Week and a link to the promotional products available in the SNMMI store for this year’s Nuclear Medicine Week. These include pens, posters, soup mugs, lanyards, lunch bags, calculators, lapel pins, children’s t-shirts, and coffee mugs. There is something for everyone.“I’m thankful for the incredible advances in medicine that have taken place during my lifetime. I almost certainly wouldn’t still be here if it weren’t for them.” —Billy Graham

Because we were unable to get an original continuing education (CE) article for this issue of JNMT, we have chosen to reprint a CE opportunity from JNM. If you received CE credit previously for this article, you cannot receive credit twice for the same article. I have redoubled our efforts to get original CE articles for JNMT and am hopeful that going forward this will not happen often. We will try to reprint only those JNM CE articles that are on topics of interest to JNMT readers. If you have an idea for a CE article or would like to write one, please let me know. This edition has a few Teaching Case Studies, several articles concerning imaging, and 2 invited commentaries—one concerning whether sucralose ingestion is acceptable before ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging and another from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supporting an article on the willingness of NMTs to help out in a radiological disaster. Also included in this edition is a letter to the editor concerning infection control within nuclear medicine departments. These commentaries and letter bring interesting and thought-provoking issues to the attention of JNMT readers that could lead to additional research in these areas.

Finally, in a continuing effort to encourage online discussion, we have posted another situational judgment on the SNMMI Facebook page. Please go to www.snm.org/facebook and add your comments about the new situation, “My Colleague Has Confided in Me That She Is Pregnant—Should I Tell Our Supervisor or What?”