Welcome To The Missouri Valley Chapter of the SNMMI

The MVC is a regional chapter of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging representing individuals from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The Chapter sponsors a Fall meeting each year to provide nuclear medicine professionals with continuing education opportunities addressing the newest innovations and latest developments in the field. The Chapter also acts as a liaison with the SNMMI, which is our national professional society.

- Chapter News -

MVC Survey for NCD Feedback

Calling all MVC members: here's your chance to let the SNMMI know about the issues affecting your day-to-day job in Nuclear Medicine.

Please complete this survey and provide your feedback so our National Council Delegate can report on issues affecting the MVC membership at the upcoming SNMMI Mid-Winter Meeting.

2024 MVC Annual Meeting

Thanks to everyone for another great annual meeting! We appreciate everyone who attended in person and virtually. We would also like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to our outstanding group of speakers for their time and expertise.

Attendance verification forms for meeting participants have been submitted to the SNMMI for CE processing. Click here for a copy of the CE approval letter from the SNMMI if needed for your records. CE certificates for attendees were distributed by the SNMMI prior to the Learning Center website being unavailable from Oct. 18 to Nov. 11.

Make plans to join us back in Kansas City for the 2025 Annual Meeting: Sept. 26-28, 2025 at the same Embassy Suites Kansas City Int'l Airport Hotel!

Job Opportunities

Please review this document for information about a FT Nuclear Medicine Technologist position at Hannibal Regional in Hannibal, MO. Sign-on bonus is available. For more information, contact Kyle Pickett (details in document).

Please review this document for information about a FT Nuclear Medicine Technologist position with DMS Health Iowa. Signing bonus is available. For more information, contact Will Sutor (details in document).

The University of Kansas Health System has 3 new positions available:

SNMMI Monthly Updates

GOVERNANCE & MEMBER ENGAGEMENT

Welcome to New Chapter (Puerto Rico)
We are thrilled to announce the approval of Puerto Rico as the newest chapter of SNMMI! This exciting milestone marks a new chapter for the nuclear medicine community in Puerto Rico.

The SNMMI-TS/Telix Entry Level Nuclear Medicine Technology Scholarship and the SNMMI-TS/AMI Entry Level Nuclear Medicine Technology Scholarship seek to meet the growing need of patients by providing scholarships to individuals interested in pursuing a career as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist. The individual must have applied to a certificate, associate, bachelor's or master's nuclear medicine technology training program within the last six months and must have either recently been accepted or are awaiting acceptance determination.
Deadline is March 27th, 2025

Links for both scholarships:

The SNMMI-TS Emerging Technologists Leadership Academy will be held on June 19, 2025, in conjunction with the SNMMI Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA. This one-day leadership development program offers current NMT students and recent graduates the opportunity to learn and practice key leadership skills that will foster both personal and professional growth. The Academy will focus on emotional intelligence, defining effective leadership, collaborative leadership, problem-solving, conflict resolution, effective communication, and work/life balance management. If accepted, the SNMMI-TS will cover your airfare, and two-nights hotel.
The deadline is April 3rd, 2025.

Link to application:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TS_ETLA25

Call for Nominations for the 2025 SNMMI-TS National Election
This notice will serve as the official Call for Nominations for the 2025 SNMMI-TS National Election. We encourage anyone who is interested to contact or submit a candidate packet to Nikki Wenzel-Lamb (nwenzel-lamb@snmmi.org). More information is available on this flyer.

Governance Grid for the 2025 Annual Meeting is available on the SNMMI's website: Download the PDF..

The following Grants and Awards are closing next month:

2025 Women in Nuclear Medicine She Paved the Way Award - 3/15/2025
2025 Women in Nuclear Medicine Rising Star Nomination - 3/15/2025
2025 Susan C. Weiss Clinical Advancement Scholarship - 4/1/2025

ADVOCACY

Hill Day and Hill Briefing

March 26th - all day
Attendees will include members, patients, and industry
Most attendees have 4-6 Hill meetings
Issues will likely be:

Continued NIH funding
Funding for theragnostic
Comprehensive reform of the MPFS

March 27 - half day Hill briefing for Hill staff

Nuclear Medicine 101

Administration's Action on Federal Grants/Loans

On January 27th President Trump directed the OMB to temporarily pause federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance while they were reviewed to see if the spending complied with the new Administration's executive orders.
This would have negatively impacted many of our members and it caused widespread confusion.
A US District judge blocked the funding freeze minutes before it was scheduled to take effect. The Administration announced it was rescinding the directive.
22 Attorneys General filed an emergency motion alleging the Administration wasn't following the judge's temporary restraining order not to freeze funds.
A federal judge ruled February 10th that the Trump Administration failed to comply with the order unfreezing federal payments and that it must comply.

Trump Administration's Action at NIH

On February 7th, the Trump Administration announced NIH was capping the "indirect expenses" for grants to universities, medical centers, and other research institutions at 15%, down from an average of 27% to 28%.
Indirect expenses include items such as lab space, faculty, equipment, and infrastructure.
This would negatively impact many of our members.
Attorneys' generals from 22 states sued to challenge these caps that were due to take effect the same day. The states accused the NIH of exceeding its authority and violating federal laws.
A judge temporarily blocked the Administration's caps and scheduled a hearing for late February.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

On December 20th, Congressional leaders passed a FY2025 Continuing Resolution (CR).

The package provides relief to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) conversion factor for 2025 - originally set at 2.83%, down 0.33% to 2.5%.
The adjustment is a temporary fix rather than a long-term solution to the systemic issues in Medicare payment structures.
The CR will last until March 14th, 2025.
Congressional leaders will have to then work together to pass the full FY2025 Budget.

SNMMI successfully worked with Congress to include neuroendocrine tumors in the CDMRP Peer- Reviewed Cancer Research Program, securing $130 million in the Senate Department of Defense Appropriations Bill.

SNMMI plans to work with the House and the Senate to ensure NETs funding is included in the final FY25 budget. This is expected to be voted on in March of 2025.

QUALITY OF PRACTICE

Dear SNMMI members and fellow nuclear medicine enthusiasts: You may have seen our new learning center. Don't forget all the valuable reader training modules that the Research and Discovery team has helped prepare so that you can implement and correctly interpret new radiopharmaceuticals in your clinic or hospital.

Please go to the SNMMI Learning Center where you can search for each of the reader training modules. Make sure that you are signed in with your member account.

OUTREACH

SNMMI has launched (or in some cases re-launched) its patient social media sites. We look forward to having regular posts that help patients better understand the role of nuclear medicine in diagnosing and treating disease. And we encourage all of you to please follow, engage, and repost to your own channels!

Facebook

Bluesky

Twitter

Instagram

DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING

The first JNMT podcast episode is live now! It features Jessica Settle as our host, with Mary Beth Farrell as her guest. This episode is called Got the Munchies? Cannabis and Gastric Emptying Scintigraphy and can be found here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Quick-Reference Protocol Manual for Nuclear Medicine Technologists-2nd edition! This refreshed edition includes 28 new and 71 updated protocols, designed to serve the practical needs of technologists. Each protocol is a reliable resource listing essential information for the procedure. Order now!

HOAG Annual Oncologic PET/CT and MIT Course: This three-day course from April 2-4, 2025. It is at the Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, CA. This course will emphasize modern PET/CT Imaging and Molecular Imaging and Therapy (MIT) with targeted imaging and therapy radiotracers. This course will include 12 hours of lectures from MIT leaders around the world and 12 hours of dedicated computer workstation time for attendees to personally review order 500 PET/CT studies. Learn more here

Apply for the SNMMI-Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance Invasive Lobular Carcinoma Imaging Research Fellowship of $100,000! Research projects must focus on ILC and molecular imaging or therapy for lobular breast cancer. Priority projects may have molecular imaging as the primary focus of the proposed research or researchers may investigate methods that integrate other imaging and/or molecular science with radionuclide methods, including hybrid imaging techniques such as PET/CT, SPECT/CT and PET/MRI.

EDUCATION & MEETING SERVICES

The new SNMMI Learning Center was launched in November. The full catalog is available to members online.

We will have an interim Joint Provider process, which has been communicated to the Chapters, until the new submission process is completed in the first quarter of 2025.

Chapter meetings that occurred in the fall will be added to the new Learning Center for the issuance of credit shortly.

Stay up to date on MVC news - like us on Facebook and follow us on X/Twitter!