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Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | June 14, 2011
From the June 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Delbeke: Overall, the mission of the society is to improve health care by advancing molecular imaging and therapy. I was planning to continue to support the SNM long-term initiatives, such as bringing new biomarkers to the bedside, that are critical to the future of our field.
However with the current economic challenges, I also wanted to focus on the more immediate needs of the membership. I perceived these as being concerns related to the shortage of radioisotopes, decreasing reimbursement and health care reform.
The goal of the health care reform is to provide health care to more individuals and to control its cost. The number and cost of advanced imaging procedures has grown disproportionally compared to the overall growth rate of health care. In addition, the public concern about radiation exposure is rising.
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Laboratory accreditation and physician’s adherence to evidenced-based practice guidelines and appropriateness use criteria are increasingly important as a condition for reimbursement.
The goal of SNM is to ensure that patients continue to have access to critical medical diagnostic tests and high quality care.
Nuclear medicine and molecular imaging are not only an essential component for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, but can contribute to more efficient and cost effective health care by guiding to the most appropriate therapies and sparing patients from unnecessary treatment, especially unnecessary and expensive invasive procedures.
I believed that the best way to achieve this goal was through sustainable delivery of radioisotopes, well designed multicenter clinical trials, comparative effectiveness research and evidenced-based multidisciplinary practice guidelines. I believe that during my presidency, all these SNM initiatives have moved forward.
DMBN: What do you believe are the biggest challenges facing the imaging sector today?
Delbeke: I believe there are two huge challenges. The first impacts imaging in general – the economy and the problem the government is facing in trying to provide more care to more people while simultaneously decreasing costs.
