From the President

Daniel Badger - MANZSNM President

Nuclear Medicine is awesome! Nuclear Medicine is cool when you are part of a team! [sung to the tune of song from The Lego Movie.]

I'm sure you all agree with me, because Nuclear Medicine is a wonderful profession to work in, but even more it is a true "team sport". It relies utterly on the skills and knowledge of a whole team of different professions, and without any one of the professions that we have in our membership, we just wouldn't be able to do what we do.

Writing this article in the Winter 2021 Gamma Gazette means it has been over one year since I took on the role as President of the Society, and so much has happened in that time! I didn't realise how much is done behind the scenes, with the society constantly dealing with enquiries and requests from members, nuclear medicine professionals from outside Australia, the public, organisations involved in nuclear medicine and research, and various government and other organisations. It is a never ending parade of emails to respond to, documents to write/ review/edit/send off, meetings to attend and strategy to plan. Not to mention the work involved in making sure the Annual Scientific Meeting happens and things go OK! Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased and proud to be a part of making a difference in nuclear medicine and supporting all of you, the members of the Society.

You will all be familiar with the Lancet Oncology Commission on Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, including the fantastic efforts of our own Andrew Scott. You won't be surprised to find that the quality and availability of imaging makes a huge difference in outcomes. Obviously the quality and access to appropriate and effective therapies are very important too. It is vitally important that we as the nuclear medicine community step up and make sure that we are part of the process of improving availability and the quality of nuclear medicine imaging and therapy, both in Australia and New Zealand, but also helping out our neighbours. The ANZSNM have recently made a submission to the IAEA's Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology for Asia and the Pacific (RCA), and in it we hope to contribute to better outcomes for patients both here and in our backyard. We also need to be on the forefront, providing our expertise to help develop standards and guidelines for theranostics - it is too important that it is done right not to allow it to grow in an uncontrolled way - we can't let it be like the cancers that we are imaging and treating!

I was pleased to hear about Dr John Andrews being recognised with an AM in the latest Queen's Birthday Honours. John is a past president of the Society and you can find out more about his career and listen to interviews with him at www.thermh.org.au/profile/775752. According to John: "We did the first pulmonary embolism in Victoria at the Melbourne and I diagnosed it. And I hoped to God I was right..."

Finally, while it seems like ages until May 2022 and the ASM in Brisbane, the time will fly by! You should already be thinking about your research projects and getting ready to send in abstracts.

Stay safe and remember to keep supporting your colleagues and friends - they are your (and my) nuclear medicine family.

Daniel

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Prof Andrew Scott International Relations Committee

Jessica Fagan Branch Secretary, NZ

Benjamin-Minh Hoc Ly RMIT University, Melbourne

Isabel Barber University of South Australia, Adelaide Sarah Daniel Branch Chair, QLD

Lachlan Stranks Royal Adelaide Hospital, SA

Mariana Elias University of South Australia, Adelaide

Ashleigh Hull University of South Australia, Adelaide

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR

Rajeev Chandra General Manager PO Box 6178, Vermont South, VIC 3133 T 1300 330 402 F (03) 8677 2970 secretariat@anzsnm.org.au

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