Editor's Page

This month the 50^th annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine will take place in New Orleans, LA. This promises to be an exciting meeting in terms of both social and scientific content. In addition to the wide variety of continuing education and scientific papers presented at the meeting, there will also be exhibits on the history of nuclear medicine.

Each year, some of the papers presented at the annual meeting will be published in either The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) or Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology (JNMT). In doing this, the writers document the history of nuclear medicine. This enduring published material is what will constitute each individual’s mark in history. How often has each of us done work that we thought would be interesting to others but never had the time to publish? Later we find that someone else has written the article and thus claimed their place in the historical record.

The Technologist Section has planned an exceptional program again this year with emphasis on topics of vital interest to nuclear medicine technologists. In this issue of the JNMT we have the program grid for this year’s Technologist Section meeting as well as abstracts for the 24 scientific papers and 16 posters that have been accepted for presentation. These technologists have started down the path to documenting their professional history and, in doing so, have added to the history of nuclear medicine. We all have interesting personal lives, but in the world of science, we are known by what we have published.

During the last 2 annual meetings, the JNMT has presented an educational session on how to write a scientific paper in hopes of helping technologists make the transition from presenting a scientific paper to publishing their work in the JNMT. These sessions were reasonably well attended, but we have decided to do something a little different this year. This year, I will be at the publications booth on Sunday from 2:30–4:00 pm, Monday from 4:15–5:30 pm, and Tuesday from 1:00–2:15 pm.

During this time I will be available to talk with potential authors about writing a scientific paper and submitting it for publication in the JNMT. This will allow more personal attention to the needs of each individual author. Please stop by and visit even if you are not contemplating writing a scientific article. I am interested in meeting you and in hearing about what you are interested in reading in the JNMT.

While each article that is published contains the results of the scientific endeavor, there is also insight into the life of the author of each article. We rarely get a glimpse of the life of these individuals, but the annual meeting will give us that opportunity. By attending the plenary sessions, educational, scientific and social events, we meet other technologists, physicians, and scientists that we would not have known otherwise.

The professional “networking” that we achieve at the annual meeting is both fun and beneficial. New Orleans is a wonderful city in which to blend both the social and professional aspects of the meeting. So go forth, enjoy the food, the music, and the science and have a wonderful time. I hope to see you there.