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The 1st Organizing Committee Meeting
September 29, 2003 Jakarta, Indonesia
MINUTES
FOR
The 1st Organizing Committee Meeting of ARCCNM
September 29th, 2003
Jade Room, Hotel Nikko
Jakarta, Indonesia
<< Present >>
Member : Korea
June-Key
Chung, M.D. (Chairman)
Sang-Moo
Lim, M.D. (Secretary General)
Bangladesh
Pakistan
Faridul Alam, M.D.
Muhammad
Numair Younis, M.D.
China
Philippines
Zuo-Xiang
He, M.D.
Jose Eduardo Rondain, M.D.
India
Thailand
Vikram
R. Lele, M.D.
S. Boonyaprapa, M.D.
Indonesia
Vietnam
S.
Kartamihardja Hussein, M.D. Mai Trong Khoa,
M.D.
Japan
Shuji
Tanada, M.D.
Observers : Myung-Chul Lee, M.D.(Korea), Theofilo
O.L. San Luis, M.D.(Philippines)
Felix X. Sundram, M.D. (Singapore),
Y. N. I Anand, M.D.(India)
Dr.
June-Key Chung officially called the meeting to order. He provided
a brief introduction
about the establishment of the ARCCNM Organizing Committee and asked
the 10
Organizing Committee members to formally introduce themselves.
The Secretary General of the ARCCNM, Dr. Sang-Moo Lim, gave a presentation
on the
history, development and current status of nuclear medicine in Korea,
with a particular
focus on comparing the situation in Korea to that of Japan and the
United States.
Dr. Faridul Alam gave a presentation on the history, development
and current status of
nuclear medicine practice and technology in Bangladesh. He also
commented that the
success of the 1st Annual General Meeting, held in Bangladesh, has
had positive affects
for the promotion of nuclear medicine in the country.
Dr.
Zuo-Xiang He gave a presentation on the history, development and
current status of
nuclear medicine in China. He noted that it is difficult to obtain
support from the Chinese
government and from national insurance companies. Dr. He also explained
that
therefore, while China does have the capability to increase nuclear
medicine technology,
because of the lack of government support there are insufficient
funds to sustain PET
related projects and nuclear medicine practice and technology in
general.
Dr. Vikram R. Lele gave a presentation on the history, development
and current status of
nuclear medicine in India. He noted that there is a lack of nuclear
medicine physicians
and more so, a lack of nuclear medicine technologists. Dr. Lele
explained that because
of the low numbers of technologists in India, they are regarded
as an elite group. As a
result, technologists¡¯ salaries are unreasonably high in comparison
to other
professionals in the field. Currently, they are attempting regulate
this issue by supplying
each nuclear medicine institution in India with qualified professionals.
In the case of non-
qualified professionals, they will be allowed to continue practicing
if they have been
working in the field for a minimum of 15 years. Dr. Lele also noted
that India needs to
focus on improving the nuclear medicine education sector and increasing
training
programs for technologists, as there is a lack of nuclear medicine
study programs in the
undergraduate and post-graduate levels. He also commented that there
are 3 pathways
to becoming a nuclear medicine physician in India, available to
anyone who graduates
from medical school.
Dr. Shuji Tanada gave a presentation on the history, development
and current status of
nuclear medicine in Japan. He commented that there is a strict transportation
restriction
on FPGs and other research radiopharmaceuticals. Only research companies
are
excluded from this restriction.
There was a short break in the meeting.
Dr. Lim gave a presentation on the current status of neuroimaging,
SPECT and PET
studies in Korea. He noted that there is an incentive to over charge
neuroimaging
services in Korea due to low health insurance benefits and consequently,
more support
from the government is needed.
Dr. Myung-Chul Lee commented that the most significant factor in
the disparity between the development of nuclear medicine practice
in Korea and Japan during the last 5 years (Japan is far more developed),
is that with the exception of major general and university hospitals,
the majority of medical institutions in Korea do not have independent
nuclear medicine departments. Furthermore, radiologists in Korea
do not recognize neuroimaging instruments as nuclear medicine modalities
and nuclear medicine physicians are prevented from holding a position
as a neurology department chairman. It was suggested that while
it is not plausible, it may be beneficial to combine radiology and
nuclear medicine departments. Another comment was made suggesting
that radiology residents should be required to have a nuclear medicine
rotation.
Dr. Muhammad Numair Younis gave a presentation on the history, development
and
current status of nuclear medicine in Pakistan.
The discussion was moved to issues regarding the ASNM. Dr. Jose
Eduardo Rondain
suggested that in order to increase projects involving education,
regional training
courses run by national organizations in Asia should be integrated.
These various
national contentions could be assigned certain CME units to credit
to individuals who
attend training courses. Dr. Rondain also suggested that if the
ASNM could be made
more aware of Asian regional training courses conducted by the IAEA,
then credits may
be assigned in coordination with the IAEA. Moreover, Dr. Rondain
proposed that a
guideline could be created to standardize the CME crediting system.
The guideline would
outline the number of CME units to be assigned to particular activities
such as
workshops, lectures or courses and consequently, this would provide
an efficient way of
determining how many units have been accumulated for a particular
individual. Dr.
Rondain further suggested that activities conducted by national
societies should be
communicated to the ASNM so that proper accreditation can be awarded.
Dr. Theo San Luis commented that all information should be communicated
to and centralized at the Office of the Dean so that there is less
confusion and overlapping. Then delegate experts or leaders for
each nation can deliver this information to the Organizing Committee.
Dr. Lee proposed that a separate homepage or database should be
created for the
ASNM, apart from the ARCCNM homepage/database. He emphasized the
role of the Vice
Deans and the importance of close communication between each of
the Vice Deans in
implementing this task. The Vice Deans would be responsible for
gathering and providing
all necessary information to the Office of the Dean. Dr. Lee noted
that this would maximize
the operation of education and training courses by integrating various
curriculums.
Furthermore, he explained that there are 3 alternative methods for
education ? via the
ARCCNM Annual General Meetings, national society meetings, and via
special continuing
education programs ? and the Dean should be responsible for creating
an ASNM
information network to make all three methods available.
Dr. Lee noted that the ASNM is primarily for participants from developing
countries. In
order to properly train and educate these participants, Dr. Lee
emphasized the
essentiality of inviting qualified and distinguished nuclear medicine
professionals to
become faculty members. Specifically, it is important to invite
faculty members who are
highly specialized, who have proficient English speaking abilities,
and who have had
experience in conducting seminars/lectures at international nuclear
medicine
conferences. Additionally, the invited faculty members should have
the most updated and
current knowledge in the field. Dr. Lee also stressed the point
that working as a faculty
member is essentially voluntary work, due to the lack of ASNM financial
funds.
Dr. Lele agreed with Dr. Lee¡¯s remarks that invited faculty members
should be highly
qualified and specialized, and that most importantly, they should
possess a passion for
teaching. He further suggested that although the invited faculty
members are voluntary
workers, all necessary expenses should be the responsibility of
the ASNM, such as
funds required if a faculty member is deployed to another country.
Dr. Lele added that an
inventory of all available human resources needs to be created and
that this information
should be centralized at the Office of the Dean. Therefore, he too
emphasized the role of
the Vice Deans.
Dr. Lee provided a short presentation on WFNMB activities. He explained
that the WFNMB
has, at this moment, 2 main objectives: to hold a successful World
Congress and to
promote nuclear medicine in developing countries
A comment was made regarding the informality of national reports
presented at previous
meetings. In order to enhance global networking, it was suggested
that country reports
for the Organizing Committee should be more formalized. A possible
method of doing so
would be to create a uniform report with a list of 20 items on which
the delegates must
report. This would facilitate comparative analyses of countries.
Dr. Luis proposed the IAEA concept of pressure groups. He suggested
that equipment
and radiopharmaceutical supplier companies should be identified
and information should
be provided to national societies as to consider possible mutual
relationships or
prospective agreements with these suppliers, especially if certain
suppliers have a
particularly strong presence in certain countries. Dr. Luis further
explained that this
would be a mutually symbiotic relationship and that group pressure
should be exerted on
these suppliers to encourage them to be more active in providing
support and
assistance. He noted that it should be emphasized to these suppliers
that the Asian
region has a large market for potential customers.
Dr. Lee felt that prior to seeking assistance from suppliers, it
is necessary to provide
support to developing countries in the Asian region and to promote
nuclear medicine
practice in those areas. Dr. Lee noted that as of now, it would
ineffective to establish
relationships with suppliers since there the number of nuclear medicine
practices in
developing countries remains rather low. He added that the IAEA
is effective in promoting
nuclear medicine in developing countries because they promote relationships
with the
political sector rather than with the nuclear medicine sector. Likewise,
Dr. Lee suggested
that the ARCCNM should focus on increasing support from government
authorities.
A comment was made regarding the rejection of the RCA proposal to
the IAEA. It was
noted that the IAEA operates on a cycle, and that in order for a
proposal to be
considered, it is vital to coordinate support from at least 2 countries.
A comment was
made regarding the improvement of public relations. It was suggested
that nuclear
medicine should be promoted through effective marketing strategies
via professionals in
the regional or international levels. Accordingly, it is necessary
to study the cost-
effectiveness of nuclear medicine and to collect and analyze data
and provide this
information to companies and governments.
A comment was made regarding the difference between the ARCCNM and
AOFNMB
functions. Dr. Lee responded by explaining that while the ARCCNM
is an informal,
unofficial body, the AOFNMB is an internationally recognized regional
nuclear medicine
organization. However, the AOFNMB has been unproductive in the last
few years and is
heterogenic, as it is composed of numerous countries with a vast
range of cultural
backgrounds, making it difficult efficiently communicate within
the organization. Thus, the
ARCCNM is a complimentary organization which serves to assist in
promoting nuclear
medicine in the Asian region. Dr. Lee noted that the majority of
the ARCCNM founding
members agreed that the ARCCNM should become an official umbrella
organization of the
AOFNMB. Dr. Luis felt that the AOFNMB views the ARCCNM as a competitor
and therefore,
the ARCCNM should set out clear objectives to avoid any clashes.
Dr. Lee again
reinforced the idea that the AOFNMB and the ARCCNM must be cooperative
rather than
competitive, like the SNM and the European societies.
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