The rally cry heard round the Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) educational sessions, hallway discussions and exhibit floor pitches this week in Vancouver was the message of Hal Anger Lectureship & Award lecturer Michael G. Stabin, PhD, researcher at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, too: patient-specific dosimetry is a must in diagnosis and therapy. “Patients are different, they need different therapy,” he said.

The combination of PET and MR imaging data can provide physicians with information on the effectiveness of chemotherapy prior to surgery, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) in Vancouver.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on June 11 issued a ruling to end the requirement for coverage with evidence development for scans using 18F-FDG PET under the National Oncologic Pet Registry (NOPR) for 18-F FDG PET exams.

What consistently gets the worst marks on hospital patient-satisfaction surveys? You guessed it: Noise. A short article in this morning’s WSJ describes how some hospitals and health systems are bringing the noise level down. Strategies include replacing paging systems with electronic wristbands or headsets, allowing patients to close doors and post Do Not Disturb signs, installing sound-absorbing tiles, raising the “white noise” level, and designating sleep times during which patients are not disturbed.

Use of O-(2-[18F]-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (F-18 FET), an amino acid PET agent, was shown to be highly accurate in identifying brain lesions in children suspected of glioma cerebral cancer, according to a study presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s 2013 annual meeting in Vancouver.

Combining radioimmunotherapy (RIT) with chemotherapy can significantly improve chance of survival for patients with recurrent lymphoma compared with chemotherapy alone, according to a study presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s 2013 annual meeting in Vancouver.

MIM Software Inc., a leading global provider of medical imaging software, announced they will be showcasing a new version of MIM Encore that provides a single platform for viewing PET, CT, MRI and Nuclear Medicine exams at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) 2013 Annual Meeting.

An 18F-FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan illustrating the effectiveness of radium-223 dichloride in treating bone metastases in breast cancer patients with bone-dominant disease has been selected as the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s (SNMMI) 2013 Image of the Year. Researchers selected this image from more than 2,000 studies presented over the course of four days during SNMMI’s 2013 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.