NEWS AND VIEWS JUNE 2015 News and Views is the newsletter of the British Nuclear Medicine Society. It comprises articles and up to date, relevant information for those working within the nuclear medicine community both nationally and internationally. Readers are invited to submit material, meeting announcements and training opportunities to the Editor: Dr Alexis Corrigan, Department of Radiology, Maidstone Hospital, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Hermitage Lane, Maidstone, Kent, ME16 9QQ. Tel: + 44 1622 224 712; E-mail: [email protected] Nuclear Medicine Communications 2015, 36:655–656
This month I am pleased to host Dr Hasseb Ahmed’s review of the SPECT-CT symposium. If you wish to submit a review to News and Views of a local BNMS event please get in touch. In this column there is also an update on the e-LFH website we promoted last month, news of an interesting opportunity for health professionals to help steer national practice and an inspirational interview with Glenn Flux. On a rare sunny February Monday, The Royal Society of Medicine again hosted the BNMS/BIR annual SPECT-CT symposium. Titled ‘Current Status and Future Directions of SPECT-CT,’ the program was divided into two parallel streams, tailored towards clinicians and allied health specialists/techologists/ radiographers respectively. The meeting was organised by the tireless BNMS scientific committee, with experts from London, Europe and beyond sharing their experience and understanding with a fully engaged audience. The highlights for me were the talks from Dr. Oral Isreal on the role of SPECT-CT in infectious imaging and Dr. Renato Valdes Olmos, from the Netherland who summarised the need for SPECTCT imaging of the sentinel lymph node. I have to make a specific mention of the talk given by Ranju Dhawan from Imperial College on the use of SPECT-CT in sports medicine, her images were breathtaking.
The meeting was predominantly didactic though a few MCQs at the end of each lecture help to keep the audience energised and a lively exhibition hall meant there was an opportunity to renew contact with some old friends. This was a well attended high quality meeting and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in SPECT/CT. The whispers on the grapevine are that next years event will once again be a development with an emphasis on interactivity based on clinical cases. Keep an eye on the BNMS website for details (http://www.bnms.org.uk). Ingrid Haupt-Schott the National Macmillan Thyroid Cancer clinical nurse specialist has contacted the BNMS with the hope of standardising dietary advice in the lead up to radio iodine ablation. Good, high quality advice could be a very useful resource, hopefully to stardardise and optimise patient preparation and as a starting point for development of patient education and innovating new ideas – I would love to see an iodine restricted cookbook. If you are interested in being involved or have developed some local ideas then please get in touch and the BNMS will pass on your details. Following on from last months article, on e-learning for nuclear medicine, since submission there have been a few changes to the website.
0143-3636 Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
Professor Lawson has very kindly written some revised instructions and if you are having difficulty accessing the module please get in touch and I will forward them on. This month we are hosting a truly inspiring interview with Glenn Flux: Q: How did you first get interested in nuclear medicine? A: Halfway through a study in multimodality imaging within radiotherapy I was asked to help in a trial in nuclear medicine that involved direct injection of I-131 into brain tumours. From sitting within an environment where the need for functional imaging was obvious but hardly recognised, while patient dosimetry was essential, it was fascinating to see the absolute opposite approach further down the corridor for a different type of radiotherapy. The potential for NM was obvious. I didn’t think it would take too long for things to be sorted out. Q: Where specialise?
did
you
train
and
A: The Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital. Q: What is your current role in healthcare? A: Head of Radioisotope Physics. Q: How do you help to promote nuclear medicine? DOI: 10.1097/MNM.0000000000000341
Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of the article is prohibited.
656 Nuclear Medicine Communications 2015, Vol 36 No 6
A: The passion with which nuclear medicine staff of all flavours promote the field is inspiring. I add my voice to others, giving lectures throughout the year (the next is at ESTRO which sadly means missing BNMS this year), and promoting multi-disciplinary efforts to cancer treatment - we are finally starting to walk up and down the corridor. I also tend to join or start committees, but whether this can be considered promotion could be debated. Currently the main push is to promote research and clinical trials in Nuclear Medicine therapy. Q: What do you see as the greatest challenges and opportunities currently facing nuclear medicine in the UK? A: ‘Personalised medicine’ is growing rapidly and is attracting ever increasing
funding and academic research. Functional imaging and image-based patient-specific dosimetry fit perfectly into this. New radiotherapeutics are emerging that are as costly as conventional chemotherapeutics and that the NHS is ill prepared for. In oncology, Nuclear Medicine has the capability to image directly the drugs administered and to plan treatments accordingly. This is not possible in any other form of cancer treatment. The greatest opportunity to NM is to muster our unique multi-disciplinary workforce to actively develop functional imaging and dosimetry-based therapies. The greatest challenge is to do this before others will. Q: What advice would you give to someone starting out in nuclear medicine in the UK? A: Think big.
Q: What book have you recently read? A: I usually take the 4th book along on the 3rd shelf down at the League of Friends. The last was a biography of Geri Halliwell. I have recently discovered Game of Thrones. Its global popularity is no doubt due to the similarities with the world of medicine. Q: What is your favourite country? A: Brittany. Similar to the UK but with less emails and more wine. Q: What are you most proud of in your professional career? A: Helping with improvements to clinical practice and with training the next generation.
Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of the article is prohibited.
This month I am pleased to host Dr Hasseb Ahmed’s review of the SPECT-CT symposium. If you wish to submit a review to News and Views of a local BNMS event please get in touch. In this column there is also an update on the e-LFH website we promoted last month, news of an interesting opportunity for health professionals to help steer national practice and an inspirational interview with Glenn Flux. On a rare sunny February Monday, The Royal Society of Medicine again hosted the BNMS/BIR annual SPECT-CT symposium. Titled ‘Current Status and Future Directions of SPECT-CT,’ the program was divided into two parallel streams, tailored towards clinicians and allied health specialists/techologists/ radiographers respectively. The meeting was organised by the tireless BNMS scientific committee, with experts from London, Europe and beyond sharing their experience and understanding with a fully engaged audience. The highlights for me were the talks from Dr. Oral Isreal on the role of SPECT-CT in infectious imaging and Dr. Renato Valdes Olmos, from the Netherland who summarised the need for SPECTCT imaging of the sentinel lymph node. I have to make a specific mention of the talk given by Ranju Dhawan from Imperial College on the use of SPECT-CT in sports medicine, her images were breathtaking.
The meeting was predominantly didactic though a few MCQs at the end of each lecture help to keep the audience energised and a lively exhibition hall meant there was an opportunity to renew contact with some old friends. This was a well attended high quality meeting and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in SPECT/CT. The whispers on the grapevine are that next years event will once again be a development with an emphasis on interactivity based on clinical cases. Keep an eye on the BNMS website for details (http://www.bnms.org.uk). Ingrid Haupt-Schott the National Macmillan Thyroid Cancer clinical nurse specialist has contacted the BNMS with the hope of standardising dietary advice in the lead up to radio iodine ablation. Good, high quality advice could be a very useful resource, hopefully to stardardise and optimise patient preparation and as a starting point for development of patient education and innovating new ideas – I would love to see an iodine restricted cookbook. If you are interested in being involved or have developed some local ideas then please get in touch and the BNMS will pass on your details. Following on from last months article, on e-learning for nuclear medicine, since submission there have been a few changes to the website.
0143-3636 Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
Professor Lawson has very kindly written some revised instructions and if you are having difficulty accessing the module please get in touch and I will forward them on. This month we are hosting a truly inspiring interview with Glenn Flux: Q: How did you first get interested in nuclear medicine? A: Halfway through a study in multimodality imaging within radiotherapy I was asked to help in a trial in nuclear medicine that involved direct injection of I-131 into brain tumours. From sitting within an environment where the need for functional imaging was obvious but hardly recognised, while patient dosimetry was essential, it was fascinating to see the absolute opposite approach further down the corridor for a different type of radiotherapy. The potential for NM was obvious. I didn’t think it would take too long for things to be sorted out. Q: Where specialise?
did
you
train
and
A: The Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital. Q: What is your current role in healthcare? A: Head of Radioisotope Physics. Q: How do you help to promote nuclear medicine? DOI: 10.1097/MNM.0000000000000341
Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of the article is prohibited.
656 Nuclear Medicine Communications 2015, Vol 36 No 6
A: The passion with which nuclear medicine staff of all flavours promote the field is inspiring. I add my voice to others, giving lectures throughout the year (the next is at ESTRO which sadly means missing BNMS this year), and promoting multi-disciplinary efforts to cancer treatment - we are finally starting to walk up and down the corridor. I also tend to join or start committees, but whether this can be considered promotion could be debated. Currently the main push is to promote research and clinical trials in Nuclear Medicine therapy. Q: What do you see as the greatest challenges and opportunities currently facing nuclear medicine in the UK? A: ‘Personalised medicine’ is growing rapidly and is attracting ever increasing
funding and academic research. Functional imaging and image-based patient-specific dosimetry fit perfectly into this. New radiotherapeutics are emerging that are as costly as conventional chemotherapeutics and that the NHS is ill prepared for. In oncology, Nuclear Medicine has the capability to image directly the drugs administered and to plan treatments accordingly. This is not possible in any other form of cancer treatment. The greatest opportunity to NM is to muster our unique multi-disciplinary workforce to actively develop functional imaging and dosimetry-based therapies. The greatest challenge is to do this before others will. Q: What advice would you give to someone starting out in nuclear medicine in the UK? A: Think big.
Q: What book have you recently read? A: I usually take the 4th book along on the 3rd shelf down at the League of Friends. The last was a biography of Geri Halliwell. I have recently discovered Game of Thrones. Its global popularity is no doubt due to the similarities with the world of medicine. Q: What is your favourite country? A: Brittany. Similar to the UK but with less emails and more wine. Q: What are you most proud of in your professional career? A: Helping with improvements to clinical practice and with training the next generation.
Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of the article is prohibited.
