Quality Assurance Committee Spring Meeting
Society of Nuclear Medicine
February 25, 2012 and February 26, 2012
Present: Kent Friedman, MD, Chair; Sue Abreu, MD; Keith Bigham; Dacian Bonta, MD; Paul
Christian; Lorraine Fig, MD; Tom Halpin; Sue Bunning (SNM); Jessica Lloyd (SNM)
I.
II.
Welcome and Call to Order
Old Business
A. Approval of Minutes- Mid-Winter 2012
 The minutes were motioned and approved
III.
Timeline Review
A. Timeline was reviewed and the changes were made. Dr. Friedman added
new dates to the timeline. Dr. Friedman will have the results packet finished
for review at the annual meeting.
IV.
MOC Exercise and pricing
The committee discussed the three main components of IAC, which are: technical,
administrative and physician components. Also, the three accredited agencies are: ACR,
IAC and The Joint Commission.
The committee would like to apply the Phantom program to the above specified
organizations. The accreditation process requires accreditation and the phantom is a
tool that can be completed to receive approval.
A possible accreditation option would be for the Phantom program to become part of
the MOC, which would kill two birds with one stone because a participant would satisfy
several of the required items (MOC and CME’s).
Sue Bunning, Director of Health Policy and Regulatory Affairs, commented that it would
be great if somehow we can take a broader set of data and determine statistical
evidence of quality that they are also trained in nuclear medicine. This is a key question
that SNM needs answer because they need quality evidence. If SNM can use this data, it
would be extremely helpful! Dr. Fig will check with the VA to see if it is possible to
receive a broader set of data.
“Dr. Gross has suggested that in the future, QA exercises for the VA could include a
series of electronic images for interpretation”. Dr. Friedman believes this is the best
option to prove the quality while viewing the images.
Jessica will try and contact ACR to see if they are still interested in participating in the
Phantom program. The best thing would be to integrate it into their accreditation and
mandate it.
Dr. Friedman would like to make a call to George Segall and see what their opinion is
with this. Sue Bunning’s guess is that he would be willing to do a joint quality program
because he believes the data will prove it.
**Action: Send Dr. Fig the percentages of what the physicians received and she
can do a quick analysis of it.
**Action: Get a hold of Dr. Gordon to discuss MOC with ABNM and see what
information she needs form the committee, if any.
V.
Principal Discussion
A. Review Data from Cardiac Phantom
On Friday, February 24, 2012, the QA Committee looked at images and technical
parameters in order to appropriately grade the image quality. Dr. Friedman color coded
sites:
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Green highlight means images were flagged but were deemed
satisfactory.
Yellow highlight means sites needed to be discussed.
Orange highlight mean sites failed.
The theory: The scores are highly variable because a lot depended on whether or not
called participants used basil septal and then ignored basil septum. The theory is people
are so used to septum that they are not used to basil analysis.
Milton Gross asked about the possibility of a webinar to present the results on a
national broadcast to the VA’s. We could work with ICANL who also has webinar
capability. Once we are ready to market the Phantom, using a webinar would be a neat
way to market it.
**Action: Get Dr. Fig the percentages of Dr.’s score vs. the average from last year’s 2011
PET CT Chest Phantom
2013 Parathyroid Phantom:
The committee discussed the Parathyroid Scintigraphy Guidelines. They reviewed several
education documents. The article is from RadioGraphics, which is a free download. We also
included the SNM guideline. The committee will be using only two documents.
Dr. Friedman will start working on a packet and Tom Halpin will start working on CME
questions.
Once Dr. Friendman settles on concentration he will send it to the committee.
2014 Bone SPECT Phantom Proposal:
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L1 Normal
L2 10 min cold-right of midline
L3 normal
L4 12 mm hot –right of midline
L5 15 mm cold –left of midline
Sacrum 8mm hot- left of midline
The committee needs to begin the prototype. The Committee will begin the creation of the
Bone SPECT Phantom result packet in 2013.
Other Phantoms:
Tentative 2015 Gall Bladder Phantom
Possible 2016 PET CT Phantom
**Action: Email Young Professionals Committee to find an interested MD or physicist to join
the QA committee.
VI. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned.