Molecular Imaging in Focus: Heather Jacene, MD, Charts Priorities as the New President of SNMMI

Noting the rapid growth of nuclear medicine in the realms of oncology, cardiology, and neurology, workforce development and infrastructure equity are ongoing challenges Heather Jacene, MD, hopes to address in her new role as president of the Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).

In a recent interview with Diagnostic Imaging, Dr. Jacene praised SNMMI’s Value Initiative, which has offered new training modules, workshops, and platforms, including the NuMeMentor program for technologists, which the organization hopes to extend to physicians.

Acknowledging that access to and quality of nuclear medicine services varies considerably across practice settings, Dr. Jacene indicated that prioritizing standardized practice guidelines and outreach efforts can help close that gap.

"Through education, advocacy, outreach (and) standardized practice guidelines, we're really working to ensure that patients receive the same high-quality nuclear medicine exams at a major academic center as they would out in the community," noted Dr. Jacene, the chief of molecular imaging and theranostics at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

(Editor’s note: For additional coverage of the SNMMI conference, click here.)

Beyond these two core issues, Dr. Jacene aims to build coherence across SNMMI's existing initiatives, including recent summits on theranostics, cardiology, and neurology.

"One of the things I'd like to do is really see how I can harness all of the opportunities and all the work that's already being done to really connect them in ways that allow us to move forward with greater coordination, purpose, and impact," emphasized Dr. Jacene, the clinical director of nuclear medicine/PET-CT and senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

With a longtime focus on nuclear medicine research in oncology, Dr. Jacene said she is excited about emerging advances in the field, ranging from a new generation of targeted radiotracers to long-axial field-of-view PET/CT systems allowing multiple targets to be interrogated in a single imaging session, and AI-assisted quantification tools that are making total tumor burden assessments more practical.

"I think the combination of all of those is really leading us more to be able to get to that precision oncology that we're all so often talking about," added Dr. Jacene, an associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School.