JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR CARDIOLOGY NEWS UPDATE ASNC PRESIDENT’S PAGE (2013) ASNC’s Past, Present, and Future at 20 Years: Reflections from the 1st and 20th Presidents
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President James A. Arrighi, MD, FASNC
One year has passed very quickly. As I reflect on my year as President of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, it is natural to ask if I have done my part in being a good shepherd of the ASNC flock? What I have come to realize is that what defines ASNC is the people that make up its membership, leadership, and staff. To each of you, I want to express my sincere thank you for your support, guidance, and many contributions. I have done nothing over the past year; we have done much. My de facto ‘‘theme’’ during this year of ASNC’s
J Nucl Cardiol 2013;20:1188–90. 1071-3581/$34.00 Copyright Ó 2013 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. doi:10.1007/s12350-013-9801-4 1188
20th Anniversary was to try to recognize the values that made ASNC a very successful professional society over the past 20 years, and to apply these same values to our current and future work and goals. Nuclear cardiac imaging has a long history for over five decades. Each decade has been characterized by great progress. In the initial decades, seminal work set the stage for the establishment of nuclear cardiology as a clinically useful and important subspecialty of cardiology, radiology, or nuclear medicine. The next two decades were characterized by the clinical maturation of nuclear cardiology, explosion of research, increasing professional interest, and expanding clinical availability. New isotopes (such as sestamibi) were developed, and research using cardiac PET provided insight into many disease processes. In a way, the founding of ASNC in 1993 was the final signal that nuclear cardiology was a mature, distinct field. The Journal of Nuclear Cardiology was founded 1 year later. The guiding principles of ASNC in its early years can help to guide us now. First, the initial ‘‘shepherds’’ of ASNC were innovators, leaders, and visionaries. They were not afraid to make bold, sometimes risky, decisions. Second, promotion of research was viewed as an essential component of the Society and the future of nuclear cardiology. Third, providing education was a key element of making the Society relevant to the practicing nuclear cardiologist. Fourth, the initial leadership recognized that ASNC would benefit from forming collaborations and partnerships with other professional societies, other specialties, and industry. It is important to note that ASNC was and is a multispecialty society, welcoming cardiologists, radiologists, and nuclear medicine physicians. Finally, it was recognized that the ultimate goal for all of this was to improve patient care. Is the ASNC of today true to these five guiding principles: innovation/vision, research, education, partnerships, and quality patient care? I believe the answer is a definite ‘‘yes.’’ The development of the ASNC Imaging Registry, called ‘‘ImageGuide,’’ represents a vision of what we think is important over the near term.
Journal of Nuclear CardiologyÒ Volume 20, Number 6;1188–90
The vision of the ASNC registry is that it will provide us with information useful for a multitude of purposes, including performance measures and reports, identification of educational needs, post-marketing surveillance, quality improvement initiatives, and clinical research. The enormous effort and resources devoted to the development of the registry is indeed a bold step, and entails some risk. But my guess is that the founding leaders of ASNC would have come to the same conclusion—push the envelope! From a research standpoint, ASNC’s role as a professional society (and not a funding agency, per se) is mainly that of promotion and dissemination of science. The Journal of Nuclear Cardiology remains our primary vehicle for dissemination, supplemented by a variety of electronic and online methods to distribute important developments to our membership in real time. We continue to stress the importance of funding research (through industry, government, payers), and to aggressively promote research. One major role for ASNC in this regard is facilitating connections among various stakeholders (researchers, clinicians, industry, etc.), and promoting the open exchange of ideas. Educationally, ASNC remains very strong in its live program offerings, and recently the Society has made major advances in our online educational products. Increasing use of meetings on demand and webinars will expand our target audience considerably over the next year. All of the above would be impossible without partnerships with the relevant stakeholders, who share many of the same goals as we do. In this regard, ASNC has been very proactive over the past year. We are actively reaching out to identify common areas of interest with other professional societies, focusing initially on areas of overlap in the educational and advocacy arenas. We greatly value, and want to enhance, our partnerships with industry in the areas of research and education (related to new tracers and equipment, proper use of technology, and identification of educational gaps). We have established novel collaborations with payers, consumer groups, and general medical societies in projects aimed at improving quality of care, controlling costs, and educating the public. Finally, our reach is extending internationally, to help promote access to educational resources in developed and developing countries. In short, for a relatively small society, we are thinking big, with broad outreach. Thus, I believe the ASNC of today is true to the values of its founders. With those values, we will continue to do our very best to promote the best possible care for our patients. Finally, on behalf of ASNC, I would like to thank Dr. George Beller for his service as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology. His contributions to nuclear cardiology throughout his career have been
News update
1189
immense, and the Journal has flourished under his leadership and vision. Sincerely, James A. Arrighi, MD, FASNC ASNC President (2013)
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE BY ASNC’S FIRST PRESIDENT, DR. JEFFREY LEPPO: It is a distinct honor to join with Dr. James Arrighi in co-authoring a 1 through 20 years presidential perspective of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. I still have a very vivid memory of the birth of ASNC and would refer to that time as a group of ‘‘shepherds’’ who were looking for a ‘‘flock.’’ As such, ASNC was seen as a newborn child who by this time is an impressive 20-year-old prodigy, and like many talented early 20-something is trying to figure out what to do while possibly considering moving back into their parent’s basement and wait for better times. While ASNC has already moved out of its parent’s basement and actually seems capable of continuing its growth and maturity as a professional society, the forces that are coming to bear on medical practice in America are much more powerful and sustaining than the financial crash of 2008. The world economy is recovering and plenty of people are doing just fine again, but healthcare reform is never going to go back to the way it was. Neither should our professional medical societies. Dr. Arrighi is correct when he identified the principles that guided ASNC from the start. As with all good sailing ships, you always need to tack into the wind to reach your goal. It just so happens that we are about to go into some very strong head winds and heavy seas, but our destination has not changed. Our crew continues to change tactics to address the real world challenges, and we continue to find new resources to weather any storm. So many people who are enthusiastic about high quality nuclear cardiology practice have attended ASNC educational meetings and applied what they have learned to their routine clinical practice. This is the key principle of how this society works. There is also another sizeable group of zealots who have worked to put on insightful programs, helped to promote regional gatherings of likeminded practitioners, become involved in ASNC committees, helped to move our field forward, and some have eventually reached the level of committee chairpersons, Board members, and officers of ASNC. This is an impressive meritocracy and the level of professional achievements by these modest volunteers who are so generous with their time and energy at every level of ASNC are truly what makes this the wonderful creation
1190
News update
we now see at 20 years old. This is a kid that I truly love and I am a very proud parent. This young adult will face enormous challenges in maintaining a high level of patient centered care and will need to use all the skills and principles that Dr. Arrighi outlined above in very innovative ways. There will be an enormous effort to redefine the role of cardiac imaging in the new medical order and our ability to continue to promote great patient outcomes as well as partnering with all the appropriate stakeholders will be critical to our success. Oh, and by the way—whoever has the best registry database (ASNC’s ImageGuide) wins! In the end, it is people who add value to our lives, not organizations, societies, corporations, or government policies. When there is a high level of mutual trust and
Journal of Nuclear CardiologyÒ November/December 2013
respect for the people you are working with, then we can focus on achieving the best we can do. I would close with the similar thoughts that I made in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology at the end of my own presidential year. We need to do the right thing for our patients all the time and that should get us to achieve what we deserve and reap what we sow. I wish ASNC a great life, filled with happiness and interesting experiences; but mostly I want it to continue to achieve greatness in making medical care better for our patients. Sincerely, Jeffrey A. Leppo, MD, FASNC ASNC President (1993-1994)
.
President James A. Arrighi, MD, FASNC
One year has passed very quickly. As I reflect on my year as President of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, it is natural to ask if I have done my part in being a good shepherd of the ASNC flock? What I have come to realize is that what defines ASNC is the people that make up its membership, leadership, and staff. To each of you, I want to express my sincere thank you for your support, guidance, and many contributions. I have done nothing over the past year; we have done much. My de facto ‘‘theme’’ during this year of ASNC’s
J Nucl Cardiol 2013;20:1188–90. 1071-3581/$34.00 Copyright Ó 2013 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. doi:10.1007/s12350-013-9801-4 1188
20th Anniversary was to try to recognize the values that made ASNC a very successful professional society over the past 20 years, and to apply these same values to our current and future work and goals. Nuclear cardiac imaging has a long history for over five decades. Each decade has been characterized by great progress. In the initial decades, seminal work set the stage for the establishment of nuclear cardiology as a clinically useful and important subspecialty of cardiology, radiology, or nuclear medicine. The next two decades were characterized by the clinical maturation of nuclear cardiology, explosion of research, increasing professional interest, and expanding clinical availability. New isotopes (such as sestamibi) were developed, and research using cardiac PET provided insight into many disease processes. In a way, the founding of ASNC in 1993 was the final signal that nuclear cardiology was a mature, distinct field. The Journal of Nuclear Cardiology was founded 1 year later. The guiding principles of ASNC in its early years can help to guide us now. First, the initial ‘‘shepherds’’ of ASNC were innovators, leaders, and visionaries. They were not afraid to make bold, sometimes risky, decisions. Second, promotion of research was viewed as an essential component of the Society and the future of nuclear cardiology. Third, providing education was a key element of making the Society relevant to the practicing nuclear cardiologist. Fourth, the initial leadership recognized that ASNC would benefit from forming collaborations and partnerships with other professional societies, other specialties, and industry. It is important to note that ASNC was and is a multispecialty society, welcoming cardiologists, radiologists, and nuclear medicine physicians. Finally, it was recognized that the ultimate goal for all of this was to improve patient care. Is the ASNC of today true to these five guiding principles: innovation/vision, research, education, partnerships, and quality patient care? I believe the answer is a definite ‘‘yes.’’ The development of the ASNC Imaging Registry, called ‘‘ImageGuide,’’ represents a vision of what we think is important over the near term.
Journal of Nuclear CardiologyÒ Volume 20, Number 6;1188–90
The vision of the ASNC registry is that it will provide us with information useful for a multitude of purposes, including performance measures and reports, identification of educational needs, post-marketing surveillance, quality improvement initiatives, and clinical research. The enormous effort and resources devoted to the development of the registry is indeed a bold step, and entails some risk. But my guess is that the founding leaders of ASNC would have come to the same conclusion—push the envelope! From a research standpoint, ASNC’s role as a professional society (and not a funding agency, per se) is mainly that of promotion and dissemination of science. The Journal of Nuclear Cardiology remains our primary vehicle for dissemination, supplemented by a variety of electronic and online methods to distribute important developments to our membership in real time. We continue to stress the importance of funding research (through industry, government, payers), and to aggressively promote research. One major role for ASNC in this regard is facilitating connections among various stakeholders (researchers, clinicians, industry, etc.), and promoting the open exchange of ideas. Educationally, ASNC remains very strong in its live program offerings, and recently the Society has made major advances in our online educational products. Increasing use of meetings on demand and webinars will expand our target audience considerably over the next year. All of the above would be impossible without partnerships with the relevant stakeholders, who share many of the same goals as we do. In this regard, ASNC has been very proactive over the past year. We are actively reaching out to identify common areas of interest with other professional societies, focusing initially on areas of overlap in the educational and advocacy arenas. We greatly value, and want to enhance, our partnerships with industry in the areas of research and education (related to new tracers and equipment, proper use of technology, and identification of educational gaps). We have established novel collaborations with payers, consumer groups, and general medical societies in projects aimed at improving quality of care, controlling costs, and educating the public. Finally, our reach is extending internationally, to help promote access to educational resources in developed and developing countries. In short, for a relatively small society, we are thinking big, with broad outreach. Thus, I believe the ASNC of today is true to the values of its founders. With those values, we will continue to do our very best to promote the best possible care for our patients. Finally, on behalf of ASNC, I would like to thank Dr. George Beller for his service as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology. His contributions to nuclear cardiology throughout his career have been
News update
1189
immense, and the Journal has flourished under his leadership and vision. Sincerely, James A. Arrighi, MD, FASNC ASNC President (2013)
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE BY ASNC’S FIRST PRESIDENT, DR. JEFFREY LEPPO: It is a distinct honor to join with Dr. James Arrighi in co-authoring a 1 through 20 years presidential perspective of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. I still have a very vivid memory of the birth of ASNC and would refer to that time as a group of ‘‘shepherds’’ who were looking for a ‘‘flock.’’ As such, ASNC was seen as a newborn child who by this time is an impressive 20-year-old prodigy, and like many talented early 20-something is trying to figure out what to do while possibly considering moving back into their parent’s basement and wait for better times. While ASNC has already moved out of its parent’s basement and actually seems capable of continuing its growth and maturity as a professional society, the forces that are coming to bear on medical practice in America are much more powerful and sustaining than the financial crash of 2008. The world economy is recovering and plenty of people are doing just fine again, but healthcare reform is never going to go back to the way it was. Neither should our professional medical societies. Dr. Arrighi is correct when he identified the principles that guided ASNC from the start. As with all good sailing ships, you always need to tack into the wind to reach your goal. It just so happens that we are about to go into some very strong head winds and heavy seas, but our destination has not changed. Our crew continues to change tactics to address the real world challenges, and we continue to find new resources to weather any storm. So many people who are enthusiastic about high quality nuclear cardiology practice have attended ASNC educational meetings and applied what they have learned to their routine clinical practice. This is the key principle of how this society works. There is also another sizeable group of zealots who have worked to put on insightful programs, helped to promote regional gatherings of likeminded practitioners, become involved in ASNC committees, helped to move our field forward, and some have eventually reached the level of committee chairpersons, Board members, and officers of ASNC. This is an impressive meritocracy and the level of professional achievements by these modest volunteers who are so generous with their time and energy at every level of ASNC are truly what makes this the wonderful creation
1190
News update
we now see at 20 years old. This is a kid that I truly love and I am a very proud parent. This young adult will face enormous challenges in maintaining a high level of patient centered care and will need to use all the skills and principles that Dr. Arrighi outlined above in very innovative ways. There will be an enormous effort to redefine the role of cardiac imaging in the new medical order and our ability to continue to promote great patient outcomes as well as partnering with all the appropriate stakeholders will be critical to our success. Oh, and by the way—whoever has the best registry database (ASNC’s ImageGuide) wins! In the end, it is people who add value to our lives, not organizations, societies, corporations, or government policies. When there is a high level of mutual trust and
Journal of Nuclear CardiologyÒ November/December 2013
respect for the people you are working with, then we can focus on achieving the best we can do. I would close with the similar thoughts that I made in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology at the end of my own presidential year. We need to do the right thing for our patients all the time and that should get us to achieve what we deserve and reap what we sow. I wish ASNC a great life, filled with happiness and interesting experiences; but mostly I want it to continue to achieve greatness in making medical care better for our patients. Sincerely, Jeffrey A. Leppo, MD, FASNC ASNC President (1993-1994)
