The Australasian Association of Nuclear Medicine Specialists

This is my first member communication as President. I would like to start by thanking our Immediate Past President Geoff Schembri for his dedication to the role over the last two years and his tireless pursuit of numerous campaigns outlined in his outgoing President’s Report at the AGM, with the most notable success of leading the PSMA PET MSAC submission to a successful outcome, which comes into effect on 1 July 2022.

I would also like to acknowledge and thank Paul Thomas who after seven years has retired from our Board. Paul was the architect of the strategic and governance update within the Association as well as contributing to many of our campaigns as part of the Executive over the last six years. Congratulations on your retirement from the Board and thank you for enormous contribution.

Thank you to all who attended our AGM this year. This was our first hybrid meeting with over 50 attendees in person as well as those online. We would also like to thank all members who took the time to vote by ballot for the Ordinary Director role – the first time a board position has had more than one nominee in ten years. We thank all Fellows for their participation and interest.

With that, I would like to introduce our current Board (2022-2024), and thank them for the tireless work that they have done, and will do over the years to come under my Presidency.

They are:
Immediate Past President, Geoff Schembri FRACP, FAANMS
Vice-President, Paul Beech FRANZCR, FAANMS
Treasurer, Michelle Nottage FRANZCR, FAANMS
Nathan Better FRACP, FAANMS
Scott Beuzeville FRACP, FAANMS
Sam McArthur FRANZCR, FAANMS
Lisa Tarlinton FRANZCR, FAANMS
Elizabeth Thomas FRACP, FAANMS
Eva Wegner FRACP, FAANMS

A/Prof Sze Ting Lee MBBS PhD FRACP FAANMS FANMB
AANMS President

New Vice President

To read more about Paul, click here.

Together with Paul, we will be working towards strengthening our relationships with the colleges (RACP and RANZCR) to ensure that equitable opportunities are made available to our members across both colleges. However, we cannot do this without the membership’s help. So, please send through any suggestions you may have to facilitate this.

Department of Health

Over the last few years, we have been successful in re-establishing our governmental relationships, with the main target being obtaining re-indexation for Nuclear Medicine, which is the last remaining imaging modality which has not been indexed for >20 years. We hope to have a successful campaign with the new Labor government at the helm, and will work with other governmental stakeholders on this and other initiatives. With the ongoing shortages in Thallium-201 and Gallium-67, we welcomed the announcement by the previous Federal Government in April, providing $23M for a suitable cyclotron at Monash Technology Precinct which will provide us with some support for sovereign capabilities within Australia. Whilst this will decrease our dependence on importation of these important radionuclides, this is not projected to be available for a few years.

We continue to lobby government for any PET substitution in the meantime, which they were rapidly forthcoming with the Thallium substitution. We are currently consulting with the Department of Health on the ongoing shortage of Gallium-67, and are in consultation about the ongoing provision to substitute PET imaging during Tc-99m supply interruptions in the future.

If you would like to provide updates re shortages please email gm@aanms.org.au so we can keep the government across any issues.

MSAC

We will continue to provide advice and support for MSAC applications, including cardiac PET, infection imaging, neurodegenerative and Parkinson’s imaging. In the immediate future, we are progressing with our LuPSMA MSAC application this year. Apart from providing the current available evidence arguing the importance of this treatment in the landscape of prostate cancer management, we will emphasise the intention for AANMS to provide adequate education and training for all Theranostic Specialists, with the only pre-requisite being a credentialled Nuclear Medicine Specialist. This means that ALL Nuclear Medicine Specialists will be eligible to administer LuPSMA theranostics.

I want to take this opportunity to clear up a misconception out there that the AANMS is trying to restrict theranostics provisions to an elite few centres. This is not the case.

All the AANMS is trying to do is to ensure that everyone who practices theranostics does it in a manner that provides optimal treatment in a timely manner to patients safely. We want to ensure that current nuclear medicine specialists who may not have had theranostics exposure have the necessary training. To that extent, we will be providing a comprehensive Theranostics Course, the first of which will be held in Brisbane this winter, on 27th-28th August 2022.

We are also advocating for equitable access to treatment for patients. As part of that remote practitioners without the opportunities to attend a metropolitan site for experiential training would have access to remote mentors/supervisors to discuss real live cases via telemedicine opportunities that we are all now familiar with post-pandemic.

ASM and ARTnet

ARTnet presentation ASNSNM ASM 2022 - M Hofman

Despite the appalling, rainy weather in Brisbane, the ANZSNM ASM was well attended. It was great to catch up with many of our colleagues, for most the first time since COVID.

I was personally very honoured to chair the Plenary Session celebrating 30 years of PET in Australia. This session was well attended, despite being the first session on Sunday morning after a huge Awards Dinner. We were very privileged to hear from three local highly respected leaders in the field, Prof Dale Bailey, Prof Andrew Scott and A/Prof Ros Francis, who spoke on the past, present and future of PET in Australia – outlining the journey through technology, clinical applications, funding and research opportunities.

Further congratulations to all the presenters at the ARTnet clinical trials session, which outlined the active/upcoming clinical trials with theranostics and novel radiotracers across Australia. More information can be obtained by contacting the ARTnet Scientific Chair, A/Prof Ros Francis, who has led the ARTnet initiative from day one. I sincerely thank Ros for her tireless efforts in ensuring that nuclear medicine trials in Australia are performed to the highest standards. It is through her efforts that Nuclear Medicine research is so highly regarded by our colleagues from other clinical specialities across Australia, and indeed with increasing profile across the world.

Fellows’ Dinner

The Fellows Dinner held on Friday night at QAGOMA was enjoyed by a great number of our Fellows this year as we celebrated our 50 + 2 years as an Association. Please find the link to the presentation here. Thanks to Ann for organising another fabulous venue for the dinner.

Thank you

As a Board, we are not able to attend to every single matter that arises, but we have successfully made several submissions over the years on various matters relevant to the profession by tapping on the shoulder of member experts in the field. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us help the profession, and we will continue to reach out and hope you will oblige.

I would also like to thank all the members of our current committees, and medical representatives on relevant committees across the profession, for which I have only listed the AANMS members below. I attend several of these committees and can attest to the dedication and contribution of each member on these committees.

And last but not least, enormous gratitude to our team behind the scenes in the office led by our General Manager, Lisa Maddocks; the ever-efficient Ann McGregor whom we all know and love; our newest Admin Officer, Suzanne Marks, and a special mention to our Chief Financial Officer Katherine Payne from Accuate Accounting who keeps our financials on track.

Finally, I would like to thank every single member who has contributed to the Association one way or another…primarily by being a member which enables us to work towards promoting and advancing the best practice of nuclear medicine, both clinically and in research. If you have any suggestions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly via: president@aanms.org.au.

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