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Outreach Committee Annual MeetingJune 22, 201812:30-3pm ET

Philadelphia Downtown Marriott, Philadelphia, PA (Grand Salon J)Minutes

Committee Members Present: Co-chair, Giuseppe Esposito, MD; Co-chair, Mehdi Djekidel, MD; Gary Dillehay, MD, FACNM, FACR; Kevin J. Donohoe, MD; Lyndsi Hay, CNMY, RT(N); Eric Mittra, MD, PhD; Stephen Schwartz; Chadwick Wright, MD, PhD

Committee Members Absent: Alan Waxman, MD; Adina L. Alazraki, MD; Dimitry Beyder, MPA, CNMT; David Byron Douglas, MD; Phillip Koo, MD; Phillip Kuo, Md, PhD; Helen Nadel; Thomas Schindler, MD

Guests: Jon Baldwin, MD; Gen Hedland-Hill; Merle Hedland; Marybeth Howlett; Lisa Hazen; Lalitha Ramanna; Mark Tulchinsky, MD

SNMMI Staff Present: Linda Budzinski; Karin Brough

1. CommencementM. Djekidel and G. Esposito called the meeting to order. A quorum was established and the minutes of the 1/28/18 meeting were approved.

2. Working Group Reports a) Appropriate Use Criteria Outreach Working Groups—L. Budzinski shared that SNMMI’s Evidence and

Quality staff are producing attractive one- or two-page factsheets based on the new AUCs and that Outreach is contacting the societies that collaborated on each AUC to request that they distribute them to their memberships. To date, factsheets have been created for the NET Somatostatin Receptor AUC and the Bone Scan AUCs. The V/Q factsheet is currently under development, and the plan is to create factsheets for all of the AUCs. Response from the collaborating societies to date has generally been favorable. Two societies (NANETS and the Society of Interventional Oncology) have agreed to distribute the factsheets at their annual meetings, and others have indicated they would share them via their member newsletters and other communications. L. Budzinski will email copies of the completed factsheets to committee members.

K. Donohoe reported that the process for developing the Bone Scan AUC factsheet was effective, with SNMMI staff developing a draft and submitting it to him for edits and approval. He noted that the AUC factsheets should also be sent to insurance companies.

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The committee discussed the structure of the AUC Outreach Working Groups. Currently a working group is created for each AUC developed; these groups include physicians who worked on the development of the AUC, as well as others interested in the topic. L. Budzinski noted that having four separate groups for the current AUCs as well as six potential groups coming online for the AUCs scheduled to be released this year presents a challenge for staff in terms of managing multiple group’s different activities. Committee members acknowledged this difficulty but agreed that because each AUC requires specific knowledge, expertise, and connections, it is necessary to have individual groups for each. The committee and staff agreed to continue to look for ways to better manage this challenge.

b) Targeted Radioisotope Therapy Working Group—E. Mittra reported that the TRT Working Group has been divided into subgroups according to therapy type, and each subgroup has three goals: Update current outreach documents—this is ongoing with several factsheets near completion Provide a slide-deck for presentations to other organizations—this is still to be completed Create relevant “What to Expect” videos—this is still to be completed

E. Mittra reported that the most active subgroup, due to newly approved therapy, is the NET group, which has been conducting a series of roadshows. To date, six shows have been completed and at least four additional shows are planned. L. Budzinski provided background on these roadshows, stating that the target group is oncologists, primary care physicians and patients. Attendance has ranged from 40-100 attendees, and they have been very well received. These are supported by a grant from Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA). She noted that SNMMI is open to future events addressing topics identified by any of the Outreach Working Groups and is prepared to approach industry with proposals for funding them.

c) Brain Imaging Working Group—L. Budzinski stated that the Brain Imaging Working Group has completed updating its factsheets and has created an On the Horizon section of the factsheet webpage to discuss additional emerging topics, including Addiction, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Brain Tumors. The group also created a DaT SPECT What to Expect video that received more than 3,000 views in its first month online. In addition, working group members developed and presented a session at the American Society of Neuroradiology in early June.

d) Prostate Cancer Working Group—The Prostate Cancer Working Group held a June 1 ancillary event at the ASCO conference. The event was recorded and will be on the Grand Rounds in Urology website. Uro Today also has posted on its site a variety of SNMMI enduring materials regarding prostate topics that are being widely viewed.

L. Budzinski noted that other working groups may want to consider this model in the future—partnering with for profit companies that are looking for relevant, authoritative content and that serve the


audiences SNMMI wants to reach.

e) Patient Advocacy Advisory Board—PAAB Chair S. Schwartz noted the annual Patient Education Day Program will take place on Sunday, June 24, at the SNMMI Annual Conference. Previous events have been well attended and the feedback very positive. The event aims to inform patients, physicians, and caregivers of the benefits of nuclear medicine; this year includes breakouts specifically on NET, prostate cancer, and lymphoma.

This year the group also participated in a patient fly-in day on Capitol Hill. PAAB members, industry representatives, and SNMMI staff met with the staff of 16 representatives, 15 senators, and two committees in March to educate them on problems related to reimbursement of diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals. S. Schwartz noted that the PAAB represents 11 different patient care organizations and encouraged SNMMI members to use the network on the regional level for speakers and to get the word out regarding advancements in nuclear medicine.

f) Report on proposed Tech Section Outreach Working Group—L. Budzinski reported that incoming SNMMI Tech Section President Norman Bolus is passionate about outreach and has asked SNMMI to form an Outreach Working group comprised of techs. A directive for the group and the list of potential members is under development. L. Hays expressed interest in participating in the group and serving as a liaison.

g) Chapter Champions Program—G. Esposito reported that the Committee on Chapters met earlier in the day. Most of the chapters have appointed Outreach Champions who are tasked with making connections with patients and referring physicians at the local, state, and regional levels. The program is still in its early stages. The chapters are looking to the Working Groups and the PAAB for support in providing materials and connections for their outreach efforts.

3. Review of Grid—Progress on Immediate Objectives (#1-3)L. Budzinski thanked the Outreach Group for all their work on the first three (immediate) objectives on the Outreach Domain grid. In the past year they have done well on the three immediate goals (grid with accomplishments attached).

a) Increase the number of patients advocating in support of the value of radiopharmaceuticals.b) Increase referring physicians’ awareness of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.c) Improve collaboration with other medical societies.

One area where L. Budzinski indicated more activity is needed is with the tactic of increasing social media use and engagement. M. Djekidel noted that the Committee would be holding an educational “how to” session on using social media as an outreach tool for nuclear medicine practices on June 23. L. Budzinski reported that the


Prostate Cancer Working Group is exploring the possibility of having its own Twitter account to post anonymized images for discussion.

She also noted that SNMMI has not yet begun the patient roadshows but will be exploring ways to do that in the coming year, possibly in collaboration with existing PAAB-member events. G. Esposito suggested using the Regional Chapters to identify patient advocates on the local level in developing the Roadshows. He noted that the national SNMMI leadership should communicate more often with the local Chapter when there is an event in the region and use social media educational platforms for promotion. S .Schwartz mentioned using Twitter as a means of hyper-targeting when an event is taking place in a community. C. Wright noted that using the local universities to promote an event is often effective. K. Donohue also suggested contacting Chapter Champions for speakers. He noted the list of the medical professionals who developed the SNMMI AUCs documents would be an excellent resource for speakers.

4. Developing Strategies and Action Items for Mid-Term Objectives (#4-6)M. Djekidel initiated a discussion of how to accomplish the next three (mid-term) objectives on the grid:

a) Increase SNMMI’s outreach efforts and resources within the imaging community.b) Increase outreach to hospital administrators.c) Expand financial resources dedicated to outreach activities.

The majority of the discussion centered on the objective to reach out to hospital administrators and in particular the tactic of providing a presentation at the Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA). C. Wright noted that medical business administrators need to be aware of the new practices on the horizon in order to coordinate capital purchases for facility improvements and updates. Reaching out to administrators with information on new nuclear medicine procedures is a proactive tactic. Additional topics that may be of interest to this group include how to increase utilization and how to streamline pre-authorizations.

L. Hay noted that the when dealing with this audience, the need to know what is financially viable is important and any revenue (through related procedures) that can be gained from getting the patient into the medical facility is very important. M. Djekidel agreed and noted that an analysis on cost recovery would be valuable. For instance, a patient that comes to a facility for DaT SPECT may then have an MRI and other tests.

G. Esposito suggested the Outreach identify one person to be the lead on coding and reimbursement and educate ourselves on the reimbursement protocols with hospital administrators.

The group agreed that a good first step would be to survey business managers within the committee members’ institutions to find out what issues are of most interest and whether the RBMA meeting or other venues are the best avenue to reach them.

With regard to the objective to expand financial resources, L. Budzinski reported that SNMMI leadership continues reaching out to industry for funding sources. Companies such as GE and AAA have approached SNMMI to offer grants, but it is important that SNMMI proactively develop proposals for funding so that they can approach industry rather than having industry. She asked the Outreach Committee to come up with topics for events they feel are valuable and SNMMI will seek funding. G. Esposito mentioned thyroid cancer as a possible


topic. He noted that it could be imbedded into another program, perhaps on melanoma.

The meeting adjourned at 2:54pm

Action Items AUC Factsheets L. Budzinski will email copies of the completed factsheets to committee members. AUC Factsheets K. Donohoe noted that the AUC factsheets should also be sent to insurance companies. Managing future AUC development The committee and staff agreed to continue to look for ways to

better manage this challenge. Roadshows L. Budzinski noted that other working groups may want to consider this model in the future—

partnering with for profit companies that are looking for relevant, authoritative content and that serve the audiences SNMMI wants to reach.

Proposed Tech Working Group L. Hays expressed interest in participating in the group and serving as a liaison.

Possible Patient Roadshows G. Esposito suggested using the Regional Chapters to identify patient advocates on the local level in developing the Roadshows. He noted that the national SNMMI leadership should communicate more often with the local Chapter when there is an event in the region and use social media educational platforms for promotion.

Outreach to Hospital Administrators G. Esposito suggested the Outreach identify one person to be the lead on coding and reimbursement and educate ourselves on the reimbursement protocols with hospital administrators.

Outreach to Hospital Administrators The group agreed that a good first step would be to survey business managers within the committee members’ institutions to find out what issues are of most interest and whether the RBMA meeting or other venues are the best avenue to reach them.

Expand Financial Resources L. Budzinski asked the Outreach Committee to come up with topics for events they feel are valuable and SNMMI will seek funding.


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