Indexation Campaign

There was positive news for Nuclear Medicine in the October federal budget with:

• $3.6m over three years from 2023-2024, to increase rebates for six therapeutic nuclear medicine items, including Yttrium, Iodine, Phosphorous and Samarium Lexidronam
• $0.9m in 2022-2023 for additional costs associated with the procurement of Gallium-67
• $0.1m over three years from 2023-2024 to amend patient eligibility for the current therapeutic nuclear medicine item for the treatment of painful bony metastases with any cancer type

We continue our indexation campaign with the new Federal Government and have been requested to submit an updated Pre-Budget Submission directly to the Minister of Health’s office, as well following the usual protocols, which we will be doing this week.

I had the opportunity to greet the Prime Minister (The Hon Anthony Albanese) and Minister of Health (The Hon Mark Butler) in Parliament House earlier this month and do believe they very much know who we are and the lack of indexation in nuclear medicine is a priority for AANMS.

We will continue to fight the good fight in 2023 for this as one of our top priorities.

Theranostics

A definite win this year was our inaugural Theranostics Course held in Brisbane in August.

A big thank you to all the speakers and attendees for making this such a great event. Thanks also to the attendees who completed the survey, your feedback is invaluable.

For members who missed the course it is still available online at early bird rates. Please contact our General Manager at gm@aanms.org.au if you are interested in attending online.

Attendees also note the course material is available should you wish to recap on any of the topics, as are the certificates of attendance. You can download your certificate via their registration dashboard using the following link:  Login — ASN Events

 MSAC Assessments

It has been one of the biggest years for us in this space, with PSMA PET for Prostate Cancer in July and FDG PET for Staging of Rare Cancers in November. This is the result of years of hard work of our members who tirelessly put in the applications and provided expert advice on this, which we sincerely appreciate.

I also understand that good progress is being made to expand this to Restaging of Rare Cancers as well – so watch this space in 2023.

As you may be aware, our MSAC application for Lutetium PSMA was unsuccessful based on economic reasons alone. MSAC acknowledged the unmet clinical need for this therapy and considered it to be a safe and effective therapy, but not “good value for money”, due to the comparator of the off patent cabazitaxel chemotherapy. Since that decision, we have been asked to resubmit and are currently completing work on reducing the ICER to a more palatable level. The Federal Minister of Health (The Hon. Mark Butler) has been made aware of the situation, as we put in a resubmission in early 2023.

Department of Health

Department of Health (DOH)

Our relationship with DOH is well established now. They continue to provide sage advice and great data for our pre-budget submission, but also come to us regularly as trusted advisers, for example the rapid rollout of the Ga-67 budget item.

We are currently planning agenda items for our monthly meetings next year, and they have welcomed a “Wishlist” of clinical indications for review/assessment. We have flagged that expanding DOTATATE PET to include all tumours likely to express somatostatin receptors should be first off the rank, followed by infection and cardiac imaging.

Please forward any other suggestions you may have on planning the future for contemporary nuclear medicine services in the country.

Colleges

• Nuclear Medicine rotation is now a three-month core training elective for Basic Physician Trainees
• Confirmation that nuclear medicine curriculum renewal will proceed in 2023, crucial for the timely inclusion of Theranostics, as well as providing support for Radiation Oncology’s access to NM specialist training via the same 2-year pathway open to radiology trainees via the CJCT. This information will be sent out to stakeholders prior to planned implementation in 2025/2026 Handbook
• We have also put in a submission to the Cardiology Advance Training Curriculum Renewal to increase exposure to cardiac nuclear medicine in their consultation process
• Don’t forget that from 1st January 2023, all Australian medical practitioners will need a CPD Home. Your respective college fellowship means you already belong to a CPD Home. Whilst the AANMS did investigate the possibility of running our own CPD program, this will require a great injection of resources, and unfortunately we do not currently have the capacity to run such a program under our banner
• And finally, together with our enthusiastic colleagues from New Zealand, we are working towards an accredited registrar training site(s) in the new year, in consultation with TSAC and CJCT. So, again watch this space…

ANSTO, Commerical Partners and Advocacy Groups                                

We have worked closely with ANSTO all year – with representation on the Nuclear Medicine Facility Advisory Board and Nuclear Medicine Working Group, as well as regular meetings with ANSTO Group Executives. This will continue for years to come, as ANSTO is an essential part of the Nuclear Medicine infrastructure in Australia, and recent events in global shortages have cemented the importance of having our own sovereign capabilities in the country, for which we are working with the government on as well. This year, we welcome the government’s funding of the new GMS/Telix/Monash cyclotron in the Australian Precision Medicine Enterprise (APME) project in Melbourne, which will enhance our sovereign capabilities from 2026 onwards.

It has been a great year for our patient advocacy groups, and we have established a close relationship with Movember, NECA and PCFA, who are the voice of our patients whom we are here for, and we truly value our relationships with them.

Media

Please make sure you join our socials – AANMS has two twitter accounts – AANMS and Theranostics AANMS as well as our LinkedIn account. Click the link to join.

We now have over 1,000 Twitter followers. Please take the time to find, like and share our posts. All of the likes, shares and retweets help.

Secretariat

The Secretariat will be taking a well-earned break and the office will be closed from COB Friday 23 December 2022 until Monday 09 January 2023. Feel free to contact me directly by email on president@aanms.org.au  if you have any urgent concerns over this time.

On behalf of the Board, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you again for your continued support of the Association. This not only includes each and every member, but also all those who serve on the committees of TSAC, CJCT, Theranostics, Theranostics Course and Case Library, ARTnet; and our representatives on the various government, regulatory, radiation and HTA councils – you are the voice of advocacy that makes us stronger as a profession.

We wish all of you a safe and wonderful Festive Season and a great 2023 ahead, as we continue to work towards a bigger and brighter future for Nuclear Medicine.