From the June 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Following that, I left for Boston for a year of clinical fellowship training at Harvard Medical School Joint Program in Nuclear Medicine.

HCBN: How did you get involved and get to where you are today in SNMMI?
HJ: I was interested in SNMMI (SNM at the time) because it’s the premier and largest international organization for advocacy, education, and collaboration in nuclear medicine. I’ve been a member since my residency. After I joined, I got involved in many facets. I was in the House of Delegates to start. I was nominated to be at that level through my chapter. I went on to be elected to the board of directors and became president of the PET Center of Excellence and Chair of Committee on Publications among many other activities.
HCBN: What do you hope to accomplish during your time as president?
HJ: The actual tenure is really almost four years, but as president only one year. During my time though, I hope that we can accomplish at least one or two pivotal things. The first, is the development of appropriate use criteria to tie into evidence-based medicine. By 2017, everything that is ordered should be based on some type of evidence that supports its appropriateness. We need to get that done. November 2015 is the deadline to get things in place, and that’s right in the middle of my presidency, so having those AUCs prepared is something I am working toward. My goal is to shepherd the process to make sure we get it done in a timely manner.

The second thing I’m hoping to accomplish is related to the proposed new center for therapy, The SNMMI Therapy Center of Excellence. My hope is to get it approved by the board and then bring the focus on to targeted radioisotope therapy. I think this new center will really help with advocacy.

HCBN: As president, what unique experience and perspective do you bring to the table?
HJ: I’m a physician scientist, so I’ve seen the clinical side, but also have experience with the science side. I’m a translational scientist, so the goal of my own research has been to try to help to bring new agents from the laboratory to the bedside. I understand the challenges both from running the clinical trial to making sure that anything showing promising results can benefit the patient eventually. My other training is in public health at Harvard and business administration at the University of Southern California (where I am a tenured associate professor in radiology with a joint appointment in biomedical engineering), so I hope it helps me to be in a good position to lead the society.

June 2015 Magazine

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