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Greetings from the Southwestern Chapter of the Society of Nuclear
Medicine!
Our Mission
The Southwestern Chapter was founded in 1956 to promote the
science, technology and practical application of nuclear medicine.
The Chapter is committed to improving patient care by maintaining
and advancing the highest possible standards of education, research
and clinical use of nuclear medicine.
What is Nuclear Medicine?
Nuclear Medicine is a specialty of medicine that uses safe
levels of radioactive chemicals
either to image and/or measure a given organ or group of organs
or to treat certain diseases (like overactive thyroids or cancer).
Some typical examples of our work would be a bone, heart, and PET
scans.
What is Molecular Imaging?
Molecular imaging is a new area of medical imaging that is based
upon making images of the naturally occuring molecules and atoms
in the body, rather than introducing a foreign substance such as
a "dye" or a tracer. While these older means of imaging
are certainly useful (such as a CT or "CAT" scan), or
even an older type nuclear medicine image, these new imaging techniques
allow us to:
- Image a person's biochemistry directly, without any disturbance
to the biological system.
- Identify and measure disease states before changes occur that
are visible to the eye.
- Discover rapidly—sometimes in as little as one day—if
treatment for, say, a cancer, is working (older techniques take
weeks to months).
- See exactly where drugs go in the body, how much gets there,
and what happens after they do.
Chapter Profile
We are a regional chapter of the Society
of Nuclear Medicine. Our Chapter membership consists of over
1,000 physicians, scientists, technologists, pharmacists, veterinarians,
and commercial vendors who generally reside in the states of Arkansas,
Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. We sponsor two
educational opportunities each year:
- A large meeting in the Spring for all nuclear medicine professionals
- A smaller meeting in the Fall for technologists who are unable
to travel to our Spring meeting
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